The ten republics : an introduction to the South American series in Porter's Progress of nations : with twelve maps

PORTERS
PROGRESS OF NATIONS

THE
TEN REPUBLICS

ROBERT P. PORTER

THE TEN REPUBLICS

THE

TEN REPUBLICS

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE

SOUTH AMERICAN SERIES

IN PORTER'S PROGRESS OF

NATIONS

BY

ROBERT P. PORTER

WITH TWELVE MAPS

RAND, McNALLY & CO.

CHICAGO & NEW YORK

WlLLlhH BRBNDON AND SON, LTD. PRINTERS, PLVMOOTB

** To point out the progress of the ttation — not of this or that
section of its inhabitants, but the progress of the whole social
system in all its various departments, and as affecting all its
various interests — is the object proposed, while the means employed
for its accomplishment will, as far as possible, be sought for in well-
authenticated facts, and the conclusions which these suggest will be
supported by principles the truth of which has in general been
recognised by common consent."

{From The Progress of the Nation, by George Richardson
Porter [1836-1843]).

PREFACE

The series of volumes on the Ten Republics of
South America, to which the present little book is
designed to serve as an introduction, has for its
object the promotion of closer relations between
Great Britain and the ten nations, and the develop-
ment of commerce.

The popular price at which the volumes are to
be published, and the convenient and attractive
form in which they will uniformly appear, should
assist the author's desire to enlighten the British
public concerning South American affairs ; and
the present introductory volume is thus intended
to prepare the way for the ten succeeding volumes
in the series, which will deal with the industrial
and economic progress of each Republic respec-
tively. Having personally visited more than half
the twenty Latin Republics for the express pur-
pose of enquiring into their economic condition
and resources, the author believes that a straight-
forward account of the progress they have made,
with some reflections on their relative importance
as future fields of operation for British capital and
enterprise, will be of interest.

298952

vi THE TEN REPUBLICS

In the course of these journeys, and within the
last two years, the writer has been granted an
audience by no less than ten South American
Presidents. He found these gentlemen to be men
of exceptional ability and imbued with the spirit
of national progress. They discussed with frank-
ness the relations of their respective countries
with the other South American Republics and
with European countries, expressing the highest
respect for Great Britain and appreciation of the
aid its capitalists have given to the development
of the resources of these Republics, and evinced a
strong desire for closer trade and industrial rela-
tions.

The courtesy displayed by all government
officials, from the President and ministers to the
chiefs of departments and bureaux, in according
facilities for enquiry and in furnishing data re-
lating to their countries is but inadequately
recognised by this expression of appreciation and
gratitude. No amount of trouble seemed too
great for these gentlemen to meet the repeated
demands for information which was supplied with
a surprising promptness and a thoroughness which
was altogether admirable. The Director-General
of the Pan-American Union, the Honourable John
Barrett, and Mr. Francisco J. Yanes, the Assist-
ant Director, have also been extremely helpful,
supplying their bulletins and reports, which are
by far the most trustworthy official publications
obtainable on the progress of the American
Republics. This organisation is devoted to the

PREFACE vii

development and advancement of commerce,
friendly intercourse and good understanding
among these nations. Each country contributes
its quota to the work and has a representation
in the management. The Union is handsomely
housed in a building at Washington, D.C.,
dedicated to the uses and purposes of the Pan-
American Union, which cost ;^200,ooo, the sum
having been contributed by Mr. Carnegie and the
several governments interested. The author has
found the Pan-American Union international in the
broadest sense of the word and its Director, Mr.
Barrett, is keenly alive to the important part
Great Britain has taken in the progress of the Latin
American countries. The facts thus ascertained
will, it is hoped, be of value to the British public
generally and may perhaps give the encourage-
ment of appreciative friendship to the countries
under discussion.

Except in the chapter entitled '* Early History,"
which treats of Latin America as a whole, the
present volume deals exclusively with South
America, while the Central American Republics
have been reserved for a future series. The
Republic of Panama, on account of its close rela-
tions with the United States, will form one of the
volumes in the Central American series, but a
chapter on the Panama Canal has been inserted in
the present issue, partly because of its vast impor-
tance to the west coast of South America, and
partly because the author has recently returned
from an inspection of this, '' the greatest Engineer-

viii THE TEN REPUBLICS

ing feat ever undertaken," and one which is now
well on its way to satisfactory completion.

In undertaking the preparation of these books,
and in securing the co-operation of the publishers
in issuing them at a popular price and in a con-
venient form, the author has kept before him the
urgent consideration of the interests of British
trade. Is it commonly realized that every year
British capitalists receive thirty million golden
sovereigns from their investments in the ten
South American Republics which form the sub-
ject of this introductory volume? There must be
hundreds of thousands of people within the
United Kingdom whose incomes are more or less
derived from dividends on the stocks, shares and
bonds of these nations or of their provinces, cities,
railways, banks, or other enterprises. Besides
this, the United Kingdom can claim nearly one
third of the ;^323,ooo,ooo of the trade of the ten
Republics, whilst Germany and the United States
combined hold another third, and the other
countries of the world compete for the remainder.

British interests are paramount in South
America, while the interests of the United States
predominate in Central America, though both
nations participate more or less in the trade of all
the Latin-American countries. True, the British
investor was the pioneer in this part of the world,
and his courage and confidence, together with his
business ability, have prepared the way for others
to follow, and, in recent years, to reap where he
has sown. The field which was once undisputed

PREFACE ix

has been challenged ; Germany, the United States,
France, and Italy are successfully competing in all
these markets for a share of the business. At the
time being. Great Britain may still be said to lead,
but, relatively, her competitors are rapidly gaining
on her.

With such a stake as has been indicated, it is
believed that the British public will welcome a few
facts about Latin America, with its population of
seventy millions, its tremendous capacities for
producing food-stuffs and raw material, and its
increasing importance as a purchaser of highly
manufactured products. How many even of those
who derive their incomes from these countries
realize the fact that in ten years the trade of
Latin America has increased nearly ^^^250,000,000,
and that its annual commerce is now valued at
;^425,ooo,ooo?

The best guarantee for the continuance of

friendly relations and of peaceful intercourse

between nations is the security of investments and

the development of commerce. These conditions

have brought about the cordial relationship

between the United States and Great Britain,

which has received such striking demonstration in

the speeches of President Taft and Sir Edward

Grey, and more recently by those of Mr. Asquith

and Mr. Balfour, whose support of the extension

of the principle of International Arbitration has

brought the prospect of peace so much nearer

realization. R. P. P.

108 Banbury Road,

Oxford, y«;/^ 30///, 191 1.

CONTENTS

Preface

CHAP.

I. Early History

II. The Republics

III. Economic and Industrial Progress

IV. Panama

V. The Argentine Republic

VI. Bolivia

VII. Brazil

VIII. Chile

IX. Colombia

X. Ecuador

XI. Paraguay

XII. Peru .

XIII. Uruguay

XIV. Venezuela

Index.

I'AGK

V

I

24

55
92

156

183
205
219
231

245
262
276

289

THE TEN REPUBLICS

CHAPTER I

EARLY HISTORY

The American Continent and the Islands geo-
graphically dependent upon it are divisible into
what, for the want of more precise terms, may be
distinguished as Anglo-Saxon and Latin America.
It is the latter which forms the subject of this
chapter.

For practical purposes the history of America
begins in 1492, when Christopher Columbus sighted
Watling Island in the Bahamas. It is true that
the world he then discovered was inhabited, but
the origins of the native races are too obscure to
be dwelt on here. One thing is certain ; to have
succumbed to the handful of invaders who won
America for the King of Spain, the aborigines
must have been lacking in the qualities which
make a people long-lived and influential. For the
most part they were savages, of so low a type
that the vast American continent could support

B

2 '''''TrfE'TEJ-N' 'REPUBLICS

but few of them. Two nations, however, must be
excepted from this condemnation — the Incas of
Peru and the Aztecs of Mexico. The latter, who
were the race conquered by Cortes, may have
owed their arts to some tribe which they had dis-
possessed of its territory, for the ferocity of their
customs was strangely at variance with much of
their civilization. They could weave and work
metals, they were masters of a system of pictorial
writing, and, above all, they were great builders.
The Incas, too, were highly skilled as masons
and as metal workers ; they were an agricultural
people who understood the value of irrigation and
of good roads, and they were the inventors of
a highly centralized form of government.

In the middle of the fifteenth century the
merchants of Europe were disturbed by the capture
of Constantinople by the Turks, who soon as-
serted their authority over the Eastern end of
the Mediterranean. It became advisable to find
another route to Asia. The Portuguese made
their way thither by rounding the Cape of Good
Hope, but Christopher Columbus was convinced
that he could achieve the same object by crossing
the Atlantic. His precise grounds for this belief
are uncertain. Ptolemy the Geographer was still
an authority; in his works the Eastern trend of
Asia was overestimated, and when the countries
described by Marco Polo had to be placed still
further to the East, it became credible that — if the
earth was round — the shortest way to their Eastern

EARLY HISTORY 3

shore lay to the West. To confirm this belief
there were legends of Norsemen who had reached
Vinland, that is Rhode Island, by way of Iceland
and Greenland ; and what was more convincing,
from time to time, strange timbers, uncouthly
fashioned, were cast up by the sea after westerly
gales. Columbus spent many years in obtaining
the patronage he needed for his design, and,
finally, in 1492, he set out under the auspices of
Ferdinand and Isabella upon the voyage which
made him famous.

It was not until 1498 that Columbus discovered
the mainland. On his third voyage his ship ran
into the discoloured waters of the Orinoco, and he
inferred that no island-bred river could thus have
held its own with the Atlantic Ocean. From the
natives of Central America were gleaned rumours
of rich and mighty peoples to the North and South.
Coasting voyages resulted in the capture of suffi-
cient booty to whet the appetite of the adventurers.
Then came the finding of Yucatan and clearer
accounts of an unknown civilization. Thereupon
in 1 5 18, Velasquez, the Governor of Cuba, com-
missioned Fernando Cortes to undertake a further
expedition of discovery, and put him in charge of
about four hundred Europeans, some guns, and a
few horses. Cortes founded Vera Cruz a little to
the north of the peninsula of Yucatan, defeated
the Indians of Tlaxcala, made them his allies, and
then, with their assistance, overthrew the power-
ful Aztec Empire, which, from its stronghold in

A THE TEN REPUBLICS

Mexico, had established a pitiless mastery over
the surrounding peoples.

The triumph of Cortes is thus summed up by
Prescott : —

'' Whatever may be the thought of the Conquest
in a moral view, regarded as a military achieve-
ment it must fill us with astonishment. That a
handful of adventurers, indifferently armed and
equipped, should have landed on the shores of a
powerful empire inhabited by a fierce and warlike
race, and, in defiance of the reiterated prohibitions
of its sovereign, have forced their way into the in-
terior : that they should have done this without
knowledge of the language or of the land, with-
out chart or compass to guide them, without any
idea of the difficulties they were to encounter,
totally uncertain whether the next step might
bring them on a hostile nation or on a desert,
feeling their way along in the dark, as it were :
that, though nearly overwhelmed in their first en-
counter with the inhabitants, they should have
still pressed on to the capital of the empire and,
having reached it, thrown themselves unhesitat-
ingly into the midst of their enemies ; that, so far
from being daunted by the extraordinary spectacle
there exhibited of power and civilization, they
should have been but the more confirmed in their
original design ; that they should have seized the
monarch, have executed his ministers before the
eyes of his subjects, and, when driven forth with
ruin from the gates, have gathered their scattered
wreck together, and, after a system of operations
pursued with consummate policy and daring, have
succeeded in overturning the capital and estab-
lishing their sway over the country : that all this

EARLY HISTORY 5

should have been so effected by a mere handful of
indigent adventurers, is a fact little short of miracu-
lous—too startling for the probabilities demanded
by fiction, and without a parallel in the pages of
history."

It has been stated that rumour placed a mighty
empire to the South as well as to the North of
Panama. Three adventurers, Francisco Pizarro,
Alamagro and Luque, met together on the Isthmus
and formed a project to seek for it. The first
attempt failed, but Pizarro, the leader of the ex-
pedition, pushed on down the West Coast and
returned with sufficient evidence of the riches
hidden in the mountains to obtain official support
from Spain.

But for the Conquest of Mexico, Pizarro's exploit
would be unique. He captured the South American
continent with two hundred men ! It is true that he
found Peru in the throes of a civil war, that he was
thus enabled to establish himself in the country
undisturbed, and that his first great success was
brought about by treachery, but when all allow-
ances are made, he, like Cortes, achieved the incre-
dible. He commenced by ingratiating himself
with Atahuallpa, whom the civil war had placed at
the head of the Empire of the Incas. This done, he
enticed him into his power and compelled him to
issue orders for the collection of a ransom. The
Peruvians, who regarded Atahuallpa as a God,
provided the huge sum that was demanded, and
thus enabled Pizarro to attract reinforcements to
his standard.

6 THE TEN REPUBLICS

Atahuallpa was then judicially murdered, and
after one or two checks the Spaniards made his
kingdom their own.

The invaders of Peru met with no such resistance
as that encountered by Cortes in Mexico. What
fighting there was — and it was ferocious enough —
was the outcome of their own disputes. One by
one the leaders went down to some tragic doom.

But while they were not quarrelling among
themselves, they were exploring the huge continent
of which they had taken possession. Alamagro,
the comrade and enemy of Pizarro, pushed his
way south into Chile ; Orellana, who accompanied
Gonzalo Pizarro on his famous journey to the east,
brought a boat's crew safely to the mouth of the
Amazon, and in the north the new kingdom of
Granada was established by Gonzalo Jimenez de
Quesada. These expeditions all issued from Peru,
the mother colony, a fact which should be borne in
mind in connection with South American boun-
dary disputes ; what Peru has not specifically
given away is presumably still hers. But it was
not only from Peru that explorations were con-
ducted : colonizing parties were sent out from Spain
direct to the eastern seaboard, and settlements
were established in what is now Venezuela and
Argentina. In the meantime, as the result of a
partition which is referred to later, the Portuguese
had taken possession of Brazil. That country was
formed into hereditary captaincies and obediently
followed the fortunes of Portugal until the feudal

EARLY HISTORY 7

institutions of Europe were overthrown by
Napoleon. The rest of America, up to and even
beyond the tropic of Cancer, belonged to the King
of Spain for some three hundred years after the
sailing of Columbus.

The Peruvian invasion, like the French Revo-
lution, consumed its own children ; but by 1550 the
able administration of Pedro de la Gasca intro-
duced order into the conquered territories. At the ^"^
outset Spain divided her possessions into the Vice-
royalty of Mexico and the Viceroyalty of Peru.
Subsequently a less highly centralized administra-
tion was thought desirable, and thus New Granada X^
and Argentina each became a Viceroyalty, the
former in 1740 and the latter in 1766. Moreover,
at one time or another large territories were placed
under ** captains general" — officers practically in-
dependent of any control other than that of Spain.

The mother-country seems to have been gen-
uinely anxious to make Christians of her native
subjects and to preserve them from harsh treat-
ment. In the latter object she may not have been
successful, for many of the tribes died off when
reduced to serfdom. However, those who sur-
vived coalesced with the Spanish colonists, and in
some cases with the negroes imported as slaves
from Africa, and have formed a race which bids
fair to preserve Spanish traditions for many genera-
tions. But whatever her solicitude for the persons
of her colonists, Spain had little for their pockets;
the commercial regulations which she saw fit to

8 THE TEN REPUBLICS

enforce were ill conceived from all points of view.
She treated South America as a milch cow, but
restricted her yield by denying her proper nourish-
ment. Trade was to be confined to Spanish
bottoms— a challenge taken up by Drake and
Hawkins and the buccaneers of all countries.
Moreover, the Spanish officials who were sent out
to govern the colonies were greedy, lethargic
and corrupt — at any rate until the end of the
eighteenth century, when many reforms were in-
troduced.

But the Indian is a stoic and the Spaniard a
fatalist ; the colonists preserved their loyalty, a
loyalty tempered by smuggling. Thus two
British expeditions which were sent to the Plate
during the Napoleonic wars ended in disaster.
But when Ferdinand VII was compelled to re-
nounce the throne of Spain in favour of Joseph
Buonaparte a new situation arose. There was no
longer any authority behind the decrees of Fer-
dinand's officials, many of whom were unpopular,
and the colonies would have none of Joseph.

Imbued with the doctrines of the French Revo-
lution, excited by the breaking away of England's
North American possessions, and conscious of
their own grievances, they rose in revolt, and the
restoration of Ferdinand did not tempt them back
to their allegiance. Their independence had to
be bought with blood, and fighting went on in all
the Spanish dominions. It was not until 1824
that the victory of the insurgents at Ayacucho

EARLY HISTORY 9

put an end to the power of Spain in South
America.

For their liberty the colonists had to thank their v
generals, San Martin and Bolivar, and in a lesser
degree Great Britain and the United States.
The former nation recognized their independence,
fearing that the re-establishment of Spanish
supremacy would mean the end of her trade ;
the latter promulgated the Monroe doctrine, and
thus Europe found herself "warned off" South
America.

It is impossible in a short introduction to give
any but the most summary account of the large
group of Islands known as the West Indies, a
name which recalls the belief of their discoverer
Columbus that he had reached India by sailing
westward. The Spaniards at once occupied their ^
new territories and turned their attention to mining
operations for which they exacted forced labour
from the aborigines. The natives perished under
the demands made upon them, and were replaced
by negro slaves. The Spaniards were not left in
such undisturbed possession of the islands as of
the mainland. Much of the latter, being poor in
mineral riches, was abandoned by their first con-
querors to be seized later by the English, the
French and the Dutch.

When Spain was at war, it was first of all in
European waters that her merchantmen were
attacked by her enemies. With the accession of
Charles V, such tactics became too dangerous.

lo THE TEN REPUBLICS

for Spain could count on the ships of Italy,
Holland, and Germany. The privateers, at first
mostly French, were thus driven further and
further away until they sought out sheltered
careening stations in the deserted Antilles whence
they made their raids. When the Dutch quarrelled
with Philip II they profited by the knowledge
gained in his service to do likewise.

From attacking ships it was but a short transi-
tion to raiding the coast towns, and this course
especially recommended itself to men like Hawkins
and Drake, while Ralegh went a step further by
making settlements on the coast of Guiana.

All this time the Spaniards had kept the trade
with South America as far as possible to them-
selves, and there was money to be made in
contraband. The English and French used to
send out convicts to their settlements in the
Antilles, and thus provided recruits for the bands
of smugglers who had established themselves in
secret places in the Archipelago. In this way
were formed the organized communities of buc-
caneers who preyed upon the trade of the Spanish
Main. Their passionate hatred of Spain raised
them above the level of the pirate, and one of
their exploits, the march of Morgan to Panama,
will always be remembered as a feat of arms.

England was occupied with war at home ; the
Spanish colonies, chafing at the commercial
restrictions imposed by the mother-country,
welcomed smuggled goods, and the enemies of

EARLY HISTORY ii

Spain were not above making use of the buc-
caneers, who, in their turn, showed discretion in
their depredations and thus survived for many-
years. It was not until the middle of the
seventeenth century, when Cromwell captured
Jamaica, that Spain recognized the possessions of
other nations in the West Indies.

Cortes' work had been done thoroughly.
Macaulay's line, "the richest spoils of Mexico,"
was not a mere phrase : for nearly three centuries
Mexico was the most remunerative possession of
the King of Spain, and it was not until 1810 that
the smouldering discontent with Spanish rule
broke into flame. After some ten years of fighting
independence was achieved.

For the next half century the history of Mexico
is a chronicle of battle, murder, and sudden death,
for her people showed no capacity for self-govern-
ment. In addition to internal dissensions she
twice involved herself with foreign Powers. First
of all, she quarrelled with the United States over
the western boundary of Texas — originally a
province of hers, subsequently independent and
finally annexed to her northern neighbour.

The war that ensued cost Mexico New Mexico
and California. Peace was signed in 1849, but
disorders did not cease. The rival factions con-
tinued to fight ; foreigners were ill-used, and
finally a law was passed suspending the payment
of the interest on debts incurred abroad. France,
Spain, and England thereupon landed troops ;

12 THE TEN REPUBLICS

the two last-named Powers allowed themselves to
be pacified after this demonstration, but France
took advantage of the struggle between the North
and the South in the United States to declare war
against the government of President Juarez with
a view to asserting French influence in Mexico.
Under her auspices Maximilian of Austria became
Emperor, and he was maintained in power by their
bayonets. In 1867 the United States compelled
France to withdraw her troops, and the Mexicans
promptly executed Maximilian. Then came more
disturbances, but in 1876 Porfirio Diaz was
elected to the Presidency, an office he still holds,
and his able administration has secured for
Mexico the confidence of foreign Powers and,
until this year, the internal tranquillity of which
she was in great need.

South of Mexico lie the five Central American
Republics — Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador,
Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Their history is very
similar to that of their northern neighbour ; like
her they had to submit to three hundred years
of Spanish domination, and like her they found
that freedom did not mean tranquillity. In the
course of the last century they have carried on
war with one another in addition to being rent
by civil upheaval. Many attempts have been
made to combine the five States into a Central
American Federation, but hitherto no success has
been achieved.

At one period the five States were so far in

EARLY HISTORY

13

agreement that they combined to abolish slavery
and to summon the Panama Congress, which
aimed at the federation of all the Republics of
America. This promising union was dissolved
in 1838, because the pretensions of Guatemala
were offensive to the other States. She did not
renounce them, however, and in 1876 her Presi-
dent, Barrios, perished in battle in trying to
establish a federation by force of arms. Another
attempt in 1898 met with little better success.

In 1907, the Presidents of San Salvador,
Nicaragua, and Honduras held a conference and
settled their differences, and a little later in the
same year the representatives of the five Central
American States met in Washington and agreed
to submit their disputes to a Court of Arbitration,
the judges of which were to be appointed by the
Congress of each country. The decisions of the
Court were to be binding on all parties, and it
was given the right "to fix the status quo to
be maintained from the moment the case was
submitted."

At the same time the representatives signed
treaties, dealing among other subjects with tariffs,
communications, and extradition. The conference
should result in the introduction of some uni-
formity into the constitutions of the five States,
for the problems that confront them are often
identical ; if expectations are realized, federation
should follow.

Between Guatemala and the Caribbean Sea lies

14 THE TEN REPUBLICS

British Honduras, one of several irregularly
acquired possessions of the British Empire. One
would imagine that this non-Latin territory must
be a convenient refuge for its bellicose neigh-
bours in time of trouble.

The Isthmus of Panama is situated at the
extreme South of Central America. Its peculiar
character was soon discovered by the Spaniards,
and in 1513 Nunez de Balboa crossed it to the
Pacific Ocean. Panama was incorporated into
the Viceroyalty of New Granada at its creation
in 1718, and a century later it gained its freedom
as part of the Republic of Colombia.

After vicissitudes too numerous to be recounted
here, the district of Panama separated itself from
Colombia and used its independence to cede " the
Canal Zone " to the United States. That Power
at once set about constructing a canal across the
Isthmus. Some such project was proposed as far
back as the time of Philip II, but he was opposed
to it, and the great attempt of de Lesseps failed
under circumstances not yet forgotten. The
opening of the canal, as will be shown in a sub-
sequent chapter, may now soon be expected.

Colombia, the State from which Panama seceded, /
has had a chequered career. The name was given
in 18 19 to a republic made up of New Granada,
Venezuela, and Ecuador, and in 1861 it was re-
vived in favour of the first of these, for the coalition
only lasted a few years. A region so cut up by _
mountains did not lend itself to a centralized

EARLY HISTORY 15

form of government, and the spirit of union
among the inhabitants was not sufficiently de-
veloped to triumph over natural difficulties. Left y,
to herself, Colombia has been torn by every form
of dissension during the last eighty years, with
disastrous consequences to her credit.

In 1903 she was allowed an opportunity of
putting her finances on a sound footing, but lost
it by not accepting at once the pecuniary com-
pensation offered by the United States for the
cession of the Canal Zone at Panama. Her
haggling cost her dear, for the district concerned
revolted, proclaimed its independence and secured
for itself the advantages of the sale. Colombia
would have asserted her authority over the rebels,
but was prevented by the United States on the
ground that a civil war would have closed the
Isthmus which the United States had undertaken
to keep open.

Ecuador separated from Colombia in 1830 as v
related above. From that time to the present she '
has been chiefly occupied with internal troubles,
and such occurrences as have drawn upon her the
attention of the outside world have not redounded
to her credit. Indeed, hitherto, Ecuador has not
shown herself greatly concerned for her reputation :
in 1905 Japan wished to acquire from Chile the
warship *' Esmeralda." Chile could not sell the
vessel direct, for it was obvious that it was to be
used against China ; it was accordingly made over
to Ecuador, who in the role of nian-of-straw trans-

i6 THE TEN REPUBLICS

ferred it to Japan. Latterly, -as will be remem-
bered, Ecuador, having submitted to the King of
Spain a boundary dispute with Peru, made diffi-
culties about accepting the award, with the result
that the question still remains undecided.

The history of Venezuela, the third member of >
Bolivar's Colombia, is as tempestuous as that
of her former associates. Indeed in Cipriano
Castro she produced a President of the type that
figures on the musical-comedy stage, to the indig-
nation of the more settled republics. He showed
no sense of responsibility with regard to finan-
cial concessions or to international obligations,
and even disregarded the cardinal rule of playing
off the Great Powers against one another.

Thus, his term of office, which terminated in
1908, when he was recommended to go to Europe
for *'a surgical operation," was one of anxiety
for diplomatists, who could only resent affronts
at the risk of becoming involved over the Monroe
doctrine.

By invoking the assistance of the United States
in this fashion, Venezuela created serious diffi-
culties in 1905 between that country and Great
Britain over the boundary line with British
Guiana. The controversy was eventually settled
by arbitration.

Mention has been made above of the manner in
which foreign nations encroached upon theSpanish
colonial possessions. In the first half of the seven- n/
teenth century trading settlements were founded '

EARLY HISTORY 17

in Guiana by the English, the French, and the
Dutch, all of whom have retained their footing on
the continent to the present day.

Bolivia proclaimed her independence in 1825. >J
Since that date she has had to suffer from much
internal disturbance, but her most serious mis-
fortune was the war of 1879-83, in which she and
her ally Peru were defeated by Chile. It resulted
in the loss of her valuable coast territory, and it
is now the object of her diplomatists once more to
obtain access to the sea. The war came about v/
when Bolivia realized that her seemingly worthless ^
province of Atacama was rich in soda and salt-
petre, for her attempt to impose heavy taxes on
the industries established there by Chile soon led
to hostilities in which Perii, similarly situated ass
regards Tarapaca, also became involved.

The history of Peru is similar to that of Bolivia. \j^
The war with Chile proved disastrous; it deprived
her of Tarapaca and left a legacy of trouble in
connection with Arica and Tacna. When peace
was concluded these provinces were occupied by
Chile, on the understanding that after ten years
they would be restored to Peru in return for a
million pounds, if the inhabitants so desired.
Unfortunately, the treaty did not specify the exact
method by which the desire was to be expressed,
and the relations between Peru and Chile are
complicated at the present time by the contro-
versy which has resulted. In common with her yC^
sister States Chile has had her commotions, but
C

1 8 THE TEN REPUBLICS

her people have infused into the petulant and un-
scrupulous methods of their continent an energy
and a concentration of purpose which is their own.
Thus she had made her preparations for the war
referred to above, and she can face the present
complications without misgiving.

The most serious calamities that have befallen
Chile in recent years have been the revolutions of
1891, which terminated in the suicide of President
Balmaceda, and the earthquake of 1906, which
destroyed Valparaiso. On the other side of
the account may be set the peaceful settlement
of disputes with Argentina and Bolivia, and the
tunnelling of the Andes.

The history of Argentina is peculiarly interest-
ing to the British reader, partly because of the
large amount of British capital invested in the
country and partly because of the military ex-
peditions sent against Buenos Aires by the
British Government at the beginning of the
nineteenth century. At that time Spain, as the
ally of France, was the enemy of Great Britain,
who reckoned that an invading force could count
on the support of the discontented colonists.
This supposition proved groundless : however
dissatisfied the Argentines might have been with
the suzerainty of Spain, they were disinclined
to exchange it for that of any other country,
and the attempts of General William Beresford
and General Whitelock both ended in complete
failure. The next few years were taken up

r-

EARLY HISTORY 19

with the struggle for independence, and when
that had been achieved Argentina was torn
by internal dissensions, one party desiring cen-
tral, and the other local, government. In the
meantime a war against Brazil, which had seized
the **Banda Oriental," was brought to a so far
successful issue that the two combatants agreed to
recognize the disputed territory as independent
under the name of Uruguay. The most remark-
able man produced by Argentina in the second
quarter of the nineteenth century was Rosas, the
Gaucho President ; for twenty years those who
opposed his despotic rule fell victims to his ruth-
less energy, and it was not until 1852 that he was
defeated in battle and fled to England. His name
is connected with the long siege of Montevideo,
which eventually resulted in the intervention of
England and France.

The disappearance of Rosas did not produce
peace ; the civil disturbances continued, and, in
1865, Lopez, the Dictator of Paraguay, forced
Argentina into a long war, which only terminated
with his death.

Great as is the natural wealth of Argentina, this
war, followed, after an interval of good govern-
ment, by the reckless and corrupt Celman Ad-
ministration, sufficed to produce financial troubles
which caused heavy losses in England.

During the last few years greater tranquillity
has prevailed ; an active railway policy has been
pursued, the resources of the country have been

7^

20 THE TEN REPUBLICS

developed, and boundary questions with Brazil
and Chile have been referred to arbitration. The
improved condition of affairs is largely due to the
firmness and capacity of General Roca, the ex-
President. The independence of Uruguay, as J
has been stated, was recognized in 1828 by Brazil '
and Argentina, but for some years there continued
to be a party favouring incorporation with the
latter country. This party received' assistance
from President Rosas, whose enemies escaped
from him by crossing into Uruguay. In the
resulting struggle Montevideo sustained a siege
for nine years, finally avoiding capture. In 1865 y
Uruguay allied herself with Brazil and Argentina
against Paraguay ; but her attention has been
chiefly absorbed in domestic troubles.

No account of Paraguay would be complete >(^
without some reference to the Jesuit missions,
which were singularly successful in their relations
with the Indians. In the seventeenth century
much authority was placed in the hands of the
Jesuits; but in 1768 they were expelled and the
people soon relapsed into barbarism when sub-
jected to the ordinary Spanish officials. In 1814 J
Paraguay became independent under Dr. Francia,
a beneficent despot, who ruled the country firmly
and encouraged agriculture and industry. But
her prosperity ceased under the presidency of
Francisco Lopez. His arrogance involved him in
war with the allied Powers of Argentina, Brazil,
and Uruguay ; he prosecuted the struggle with

EARLY HISTORY 21

an obstinacy that amounted to heroism, and before
he was killed in 1870 four-fifths of the population
had disappeared.

Since that period the career of Paraguay has
resembled that of the neighbouring states.

Thus it would appear that the history of the
Spanish-American republics since they declared
their independence is a series of disturbances.
The quarrels were partly racial, arising from the
mutual antagonism of the whites and the men of
colour, and partly political, one faction favouring
a centralized, the other a decentralized, form of
government. The animosity thus engendered was
exploited by unscrupulous demagogues to win
power and wealth for their friends and themselves.
Shameless though their tyranny and corruption
appear to the old civilization of Europe, South
America accepted them without surprise. For .
centuries she had been at the mercy of Spanish
governors, and she did not expect her masters to
change their ways for being elected instead of
appointed. Moreover, her people were not educated
enough to adjust themselves to the complicated
democratic institutions which they had imported
from the Anglo-Saxon communities in the North.
The newly established republics usually imitated
the constitution of the United States with its
allocation of authority partly to a central govern-
ment and partly to the Federated States, and the
division produced discord instead of union.

Brazil, by remaining a monarchy, long escaped V

22 THE TEN REPUBLICS

the troubles of its neighbours. Supreme authority,
being reserved for those entitled to it by heredity,
was a prize to which no politicians could pretend,
and thus, during the early days of the indepen-
dence of Brazil, the political upheavals, serious
though they were, had less violent consequences
than elsewhere in South America. In 1808 the
French expelled Dom Joao VI from his kingdom
of Portugal ; he retired to Brazil, and the liberal
policy which he initiated with regard to commerce,
education and administration contributed greatly
to the progress of the country. When the Napo-
leonic wars came to an end Dom Joao VI returned
to Portugal, leaving his son Dom Pedro as Viceroy.
But the Brazilians, surrounded by republicans,
resented all attempts of Portugal to reassert her
old authority, and the unpopularity of the mother
country became so great, that in 1822 Dom Pedro
found it expedient to proclaim the independence
of Brazil, of which he was soon afterwards crowned
Emperor. Nevertheless, being still regarded by
the liberals as subject to Portuguese influence, he
had much internal opposition to contend against,
and an unsuccessful war with Argentina did not
add to his popularity. In 1831 he resigned in
favour of his eldest son, Dom Pedro V, a child of
five, and withdrew to Portugal. The new Emperor
maintained his position until 1889 and was then
deposed by the republican party and deported.
This fate overtook him not because he was per-
sonally unpopular, but because the conspirators

EARLY HISTORY 23

anticipated less difficulty with a ruler so un-
suspicious than with the Princess Isabella, who
was to have succeeded him — a lady whose clerical
leanings had been energetically manifested at a
period when she acted as Regent. During this
reign Brazil had to assert herself by force of arms
against Argentina and also against Paraguay.
She emerged from both struggles with credit, but
the latter cost her sums of money which she could
ill afford. The financial troubles were accentuated
by the abdication of the Emperor, for many officials
of experience and reputation followed him into
retirement. The Republican Government which
was now formed showed itself corrupt and in-
capable, and a naval revolt in 1893 added to the
confusion. There followed a period of financial
chaos, fortunately of short duration. At the
present time the administration is in capable hands
and the share-lists show that Brazilians' securities
are popular with the investor. But in her short
independent history Brazil has done more than
recover from monetary difficulties. Without
bloodshed she has made herself into a republic ;
without bloodshed she has abolished slavery ; and
yet another triumph of peaceful character has been
gained by her men of science, for yellow fever,
which used to ravage Rio de Janeiro, has now
practically been banished from it.

CHAPTER II

THE REPUBLICS

The political history of South America is
difficult to understand without a map, but a
glance at a terrestrial globe makes many things
clear — for instance, the occupation of Brazil by
the Portuguese. The statement that they dis-
covered it while endeavouring to round the Cape
of Good Hope ceases to be incredible when it is
seen how close the Brazilian coast is to Africa,
and its eastward trend has a further significance
when it is remembered that, at the period of the
discoveries, Spain and Portugal — wishing to avoid
disputes — each agreed to leave to the other the
new countries on one side of a north and south
line of demarcation. This line was decided upon
before the position of Brazil was appreciated, and
Portugal, to whom the East was allotted, profited
by the error to the extent of half a continent — a
result little foreseen by the Spaniards when the
terms were drawn up.

The black line of the Andes next attracts atten- y,
tion. They extend northward from Cape Horn
up the whole of the West Coast, and they have
moulded history both by forming a barrier

24

O Ou«ae>a>*4.

, Caribbean -Sea ^* Martm.®-*.

Cuqulrabo

Out/ofPenat

StfiffMngtUan

» SOUTH CrOM^

THE REPUBLICS 27

between one side of the continent and the other,
and by giving rise to great rivers which affected
the character of the aborigines. The river men y^
ate fish and were content to remain savage, but
the mountain men had to till the soil or die. The
latter found it necessary to bring water to their
crops and to transport them — hence irrigation
works and roads and pack animals.

And so it came about that it was in the moun- N(
tains that the civilization of the continent had its
home. Their influence did not diminish with the
conquest. In them were found the precious metals
which excited the cupidity of the Spaniards, and
in the desert on their seaward side — shut off by
their bulk from the wet east winds — were formed
the nitrate beds for which Chile and Perii fought
for three years. Such was the strategic value of
the mountain in the War of Independence that
San Martin had first to capture Chile before attack-
ing the Spaniards in their stronghold in Peru.
To his brother-inarms, Bolivar, they personified
success and failure. Success, when he urged his
tattered rebels across their trackless glaciers ;
failure, when, in his contempt for the difficulties
of communication, he thought to form into one
State all that now belongs to Venezuela,
Colombia and Ecuador. And just as the Andes
broke up the great republic dreamed of by Bolivar,
so they cut off Brazil and Argentina from the
Pacific.

The map shows that Bolivia and Paraguay are

28 THE TEN REPUBLICS

even more unfortunate ; they are hemmed in on
all sides, and their products can only reach the
ocean after paying toll to their neighbours ; their
geographical position prepares one for finding
that their commercial development has been
stunted.

The eye follows the commanding coast-line
of Brazil until it is arrested by the small State of
Uruguay, finely situated at the mouth of the Plate
and dominating the natural outlet of Brazil's great
rival Argentina. The student versed in the ways
of great Powers asks himself how the two giants
came to leave this pigmy in occupation of so much
that is desirable, and he learns without surprise
that the independence of Uruguay resulted from
the disinclination of Brazil and Argentina to see
the other in possession of the '* Banda Oriental."

On the Western side is Chile with a coast-line
three thousand miles long, and but little inland
territory. Thus placed she should breed sailors,
and, sure enough, her success against Peru was
largely due to her command of the sea. But in
the American continent the principal geographical
factor is the thick neck of land at Panama. The
map explains the zest and conviction with which
the discoverers sought for a passage to the Pacific ;
with their own eyes from the tree-tops of Darien
they had seen its waves breaking on the further
shore of the narrow isthmus, which has been the
barrier that has separated two oceans and is to
become the link between them. The commercial

THE REPUBLICS 29

development of the Western States has long been
hindered by the difficulty of communicating with
the Eastern coast or with Europe; but with the
making of the Panama Canal their progress
should be rapid.

Such are the chief geographical features of the
South American Continent. Just as they have
influenced the relations of the different peoples to
one another, so they have modified the institution
of each particular republic. In the first place — as
is obvious — the form of government appropriate
to a small State is inapplicable to one of great
area. In an independent city of ancient Greece
the inhabitants might well assemble in the market-
place and there elect their magistrates ; but such
procedure would be unsuitable in the United
States owing to the distances to be traversed — and
in a country where the communications were less
well organized the objections would be still more
forcible.

The difficulties arising from the centralization
of power were recognized even by the conservative
Spaniards, who in the eighteenth century saw
themselves obliged to break up the huge vice-
royalty of Peru. Even then, nothing in the nature
of " home rule " was attempted. Thus, when the
time came for the independent nations to choose
their own constitutions, almost their whole politi-
cal heritage was the habitude of central govern-
ment and the knowledge of its defects. These
centrifugal and centripetal influences must have

30 THE TEN REPUBLICS

cancelled one another, for the new constitutions
show no overwhelming bias to one direction or
the other. Those who framed them seem to have
approached their task without prejudice.

Colombia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Peru,
Bolivia, and Ecuador have each a centralized
government ; Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela
are each a *' union of sovereign states, according
an autonomy to the various provinces while re-
serving limited powers to the central authority."

In examining the institutions of the ten re-
publics into which South America is divided, there
remains to be noticed one other potent factor
which may perhaps be classed as geographical —
the influence and example of the United States of
North America, whose organization has supplied
to her Southern neighbour the pattern for her
great industry of constitution-making. Thus,
there is a family likeness in the systems adopted,
all of which— in theory, at any rate — are purely
democratic. Privileges founded on birth or blood
are not recognized ; sovereign power emanates
from the people, and is exercised by the delegates
of its choice.

The three functions of government, the legisla-
tive, the executive and the judicial, are entrusted
to separate and independent bodies. In each case
the legislative power is vested in two chambers ;
the executive in a president, the judicial in a su-
preme court authorized to suppress unconstitu-
tional action. There are few restrictions on the

THE REPUBLICS 31

right to vote ; education is compulsory and
gratuitous, and religious toleration is general.
The power of the President is greater than that
of the President of the United States, but in many
of the republics the Ministers whom he has
appointed have to submit a report of their admini-
stration to Congress, while his own orders are
invalid unless countersigned by the Minister of
the department concerned. The States have
different customs : in Brazil, Ministers communi-
cate with Congress in writing only ; in Colombia,
they may introduce bills in person into either
House. For administrative purposes the republics
are divided into provinces, districts, and muni-
cipalities, the heads of departments being
appointed by the President : in some cases an
elected council advises a nominated chairman.
The constitutions of the decentralized republics
differ from the rest in reserving larger powers to
the provinces composing the State ; with the
former it is only under certain conditions that the
national government is entitled to interfere in
local matters.

Protection is the rule in South America, but an
analysis of the different tariffs does not reveal any
general law regulating the customs duties. In
most cases imports are divided into classes in
what seems an arbitrary manner, and the duty takes
the form of a percentage ad valorem which varies
with the class. There are many classes : neces-
saries are lightly taxed, and there may even be

32 THE TEN REPUBLICS

a free list for such things as railway material ; on
the other hand, at the higher end of the scale the
duties are prohibitive. Argentina, for instance,
imposes a heavy tax on leather goods — no doubt
because she possesses the raw material for building
up a leather industry.

But this is not the place for giving a complete
account of the ten republics of South America ;
those who desire details must consult works deal-
ing with the part of the continent in which they are
interested. All that can be attempted here is to
furnish a summary of the characteristics which are
common to the different countries and of the
peculiarities— if any — which distinguish them from
their neighbours.

Reference has already been made to the question
of centralization about which so much blood has
been spilt in South America, and it has been shown
that some of the States have taken one view of the
subject and some another. In other respects their
progress since their independence has been as
uniform as was to have been expected from the
similarity of their origin. Let us picture an imag-
inary State — Andeana — and confer upon it the
typical institutions and history of a South Ameri-
can republic. Its territory is immense, many
times larger than that of England ; on one side
it is bounded by mountains rich in gold, silver and
other precious metals ; among the snows of the
heights rise huge rivers that make their way to the
ocean through forests of valuable trees and across

THE REPUBLICS 33

plains furnishing pasture to thousands of sheep
and cattle ; the waterways are navigable for many-
miles and convey to the sea the produce of a vast
agricultural area which they can be made to irri-
gate. Here then is a most desirable country ;
with good government its prosperity must be
exuberant. We find that Andeana used to be in-
habited by a sprinkling of Indian tribes ; that
they were conquered by Europeans from the Iber-
ian peninsula at the beginning of the sixteenth
century ; that victors and vanquished combined to
produce a new race into which entered an admix-
ture of negro blood derived from the slaves imported
from Africa ; that the nation thus formed was
exploited by its masters beyond the sea who re-
stricted its intellectual and industrial development
in order that their regulations might be accepted
without demur and their manufactures without
competition ; and that about a hundred years ago
it revolted against its masters and proclaimed its
independence.

The freedom of Andeana had to be purchased by
hard fighting which left in positions of authority
not only generals who were skilled in war rather
than in statesmanship, but also those self-seeking
politicians who are thrown to the top like scum
whenever a community is disturbed by a revolution.
When the time comes to replace the institutions
that have been overthrown, there is no further
scope for the destructive faculty which brought the
last class to the front, and if they possess no other

34 THE TEN REPUBLICS

qualifications for leadership their country is little
the better for the change of government. Such was
the case with Andeana. For forty years unprin-
cipled place-hunters fought for the spoils of office ;
civil war went on almost without cessation, and
yet, in spite of this practical training in the use of
arms, the country emerged with little credit from
the foreign complications in which she was involved
by the arrogance and inexperience of her rulers.
Moreover, she was continually engaged in bound-
ary disputes with her neighbours. Boundaries had
been of small importance in the colonial days ;
they divided into administration-units the pos-
sessions of the same master, and they were liable
to be altered at a stroke of the pen when it pleased
him to create a new vice-royalty. The lines of
demarcation often passed through unexplored dis-
tricts, and were not always to be reconciled with
the physical conformation of the land. Here was
a fruitful source of trouble, for Andeana considered
her honour bound up in claiming the most favour-
able interpretation of every document bearing upon
the subject, and her sister nations adopted precisely
the same view.

In order that her coast towns might not be
bombarded, Andeana had therefore to spend her
scanty income in purchasing warships abroad.
But this was not the only way in which the
national resources were depleted. To enrich in-
dispensable politicians revenue had often to be
raised in a manner detrimental to the ultimate

THE REPUBLICS 35

prosperity of the people. The currency depre-
ciated ; foreign bondholders were left unpaid;
and heavy interest was charged for the financial
assistance, without which progress could not be
made with the railways essential to the develop-
ment of a young country. And yet the con-
stitution which Andeana had conferred upon
herself, when she proclaimed her independence,
was the most elaborate that experience could
devise. Imbued after three centuries of absolutism
with a hatred of monarchic rule, she had come
to regard '* democratic"- as synonymous with
*' admirable " ; she expected the men who had
bayoneted the armed defenders of the old con-
stitution to respect the paper safeguards of its
successor. Call the leopard a president, and he
would change the spots of his breed !

The new constitution was a miracle of checks
and balances; the legislative, executive and judi-
cial departments were made independent of one
another. The legislature consisted of a Chamber
of Senators and a Chamber of Deputies, both
elected by direct popular vote. Every man who
could read or write and enjoyed a fixed inde-
pendent income acquired the suffrage on attain-
ing the age of twenty-five, and by a provision, of
which Mr. Roosevelt would have approved, the
age was reduced to twenty-one in the case of
married men.

The Senators — two for each department — were
elected for six years, the Deputies— one for every

36 THE TEN REPUBLICS

fifty thousand inhabitants — for four ; one-third of
the former and one-half of the latter retired every
two years. The laws passed by this popularly
chosen body were enforced by a President, him-
self elected by the direct vote of the people. He
held office for four years, at the end of which
period eight years were to pass before he was
again eligible. The judges of the Supreme Court
were chosen by Congress from lists submitted by
the President, and were empowered to decide on
the constitutional validity of the laws of the
former and the actions of the latter. And in order
that the elector might select his delegates wisely,
education was made compulsory, gratuitous and
secular. The rights of man were set forth in an
eloquent preamble and then, no doubt, the con-
stitution-makers of Andeana rested from their
labours in confident anticipation of the millennium.
Unfortunately, these anticipations have not been
realized ; in amending human nature the Re-
publicans imbued with the doctrines of the French
Revolution were neither more nor less successful
than pious Queen Isabella, whose institutions
they displaced.

In the first place, an ambitious social programme
cannot be carried out without money, and money
owing to civil disturbances was hard to obtain.
Thus, though education was to be "compulsory,
gratuitous and secular," so few schools were
built by the State that most of the teaching
remained in the hands of the priests ; seventy-five

THE REPUBLICS 37

per cent of the population were illiterate, and were
unable to exercise the suffrage.

So much for the democratic basis of the con-
stitution. But, at any rate, it will be urged, the
various departments of the Government were
independent of one another, their heads were
elected by direct popular vote, and the will of
the majority of the educated citizens was bound
to prevail? In practice this was not the case.
The arrangements governing the registration of
electors and the holding of polls were in the
hands either of officials appointed by the Presi-
dent or of governors who went in fear of the
national army which he controlled. The members
of Congress were apt to be of the President's
party, and it followed that the head of a judiciary
appointed by Congress was little likely to play
Judge Gascoigne to his Prince Henry.

Thus, in spite of constitutional provisions, the
President was as absolute in taxation, in adminis-
tration and in control of the police as any Spanish
viceroy. More so indeed, for the viceroy had the
King of Spain above him. The political sup-
porters of the President required large doles,
and, as these could be given with little open
scandal in the form of concessions, that most
wasteful form of expenditure was adopted. His
enemies had no legal redress, and therefore they
stirred up the revolutions which have retarded the
development of Andeana.

To sum up, the typical South American re-

38 THE TEN REPUBLICS

public occupies a large, rich and scantily popu-
lated territory ; its revenue is small, and its
annual balance-sheet shows a deficit ; on the
other hand, its potentialities are immense, for new
sources of food supply must be sought by Europe,
as soon as the population of North America
becomes dense enough to consume all it produces.

Of recent years the history of South America
has been more cheerful reading ; with improved
communication comes increased trade, wealth can
thus be acquired in careers other than political :
credit stands fairly high ; quarrels are often
settled by arbitration ; there is ground for hoping
that the period of civil troubles is at an end.

If so, the States of South America will have
suffered less severely than those of Europe from
maladies of infancy. All the former are republics,
but certain dissimilarities call for notice.

Brazil, for instance, is marked out from the
Spanish countries around her by being Portuguese
in origin. She was colonized upon a somewhat
different principle. The country was divided up
by John III into hereditary captaincies which
were to a great extent self-governing. Instinc-
tively, therefore, Brazil adopted a federal consti-
tution ; indeed, no other would be suitable to a
country sixty-four times the size of England.
** Each of the old provinces forms a State admin-
istered at its own expense without interference
from the Federal Government save for defence,
for the maintenance of order and for the execution

THE REPUBLICS 39

of Federal Laws." These States are very loosely
connected together ; they have public debts of
their own and regulate and appropriate their own
export duties. Import duties, on the other hand,
belong to the Union, which reserves to itself also
the control of the currency. The central govern-
ment is authorized to intervene to maintain the
republican form of government in the States, but
the latter are subject to few other restrictions. On
the other hand, the Central Government is ex-
pressly forbidden by the Constitution to enter
upon a war of conquest, a wise provision when it is
remembered that the frontiers of Brazil touch those
of every South American country except Ecuador
and Chile, and that she has had considerable
trouble with boundary disputes.

''The legislative authority is exercised by the
National Congress with the sanction of the Presi-
dent of the Republic." Congress consists of two
Houses, both elected by direct vote of the people,
elaborate precautions being taken to prevent
members from accepting paid offices directly or
indirectly in the gift of the government.

The executive authority is vested in the Presi-
dent, who is elected by direct vote for four years.
At the end of that term he is not immediately
eligible for re-election, certain of his blood relations
sharing the disqualification. While in office he
exercises very wide powers. Ministers being
responsible to him and not to Congress.

The Federal Judges are appointed for life.

40 THE TEN REPUBLICS

Until 1889 the Roman Catholic religion was
supported by the State. The connection was then
abolished, but the exercise of religious worship
has not been made subject to any artificial restric-
tion, the attitude of the Government towards it
being that of benevolent neutrality. On the other
hand, civil marriage is recognized and costs
nothing. Education is not compulsory, and the
higher branches alone are in the province of the
Federal Government.

Brazil has a large debt and finds it difficult to
make her revenue balance her expenditure ; but
she has a ready market for her coffee and rubber,
and her resources are otherwise so great that
reasonable government must ensure prosperity.

Of the remaining nine States, all of which are
of Spanish origin, two — Argentina and Venezuela
— are federations.

Argentina is twenty-two times as large as Eng-
land, and no doubt its great area made decentrali-
zation advisable. Moreover, it had been divided
up into provinces in the colonial period, and the
framers of the Constitution found the machinery
of local government already in existence. Apart
from its size, there were few difficulties in the way
of unification, for the country was not divided
into industrial and agricultural sections, nor was
it cut up into different zones by mountain barriers.
On the contrary, the river-system of the Plate gave
it many common interests.

Thus, although the provinces retain all the

THE REPUBLICS 41

powers not delegated to the Federal Government,
the bond between them is closer than that
between the provinces of Brazil. " All the public
acts and judicial decisions of one province have
full legal effect and authority in all the others."

The executive power is in the hands of the Pre-
sident, who holds office for six years, at the end
of which he is not eligible during the next term.
He is chosen by specially selected delegates, as in
the United States. He must be a Roman Catholic,
for Argentina has officially adopted the Roman
Catholic religion, and he must possess an income
of at least $2,000 — provisions suggesting a con-
servative element in the national policy.

Justice is administered by federal courts, while
each province has, in addition, a judicial system
of its own. The legislative power is vested in
Congress, subject to a limited veto possessed by
the President. Congress consists of two Houses.
The Senators are elected by the provincial legis-
latures ; the deputies by the direct vote of the
people in the ratio of one to every thirty-three
thousand inhabitants. Members of Congress are
paid about ;^i,ooo a year.

As may be inferred, the cost of living is high, a
circumstance largely due to the protective system
and the long distance from the manufacturing
centres of Europe. High duties have been en-
forced to help Argentine manufacturers, but in the
future they may, perhaps, be confined to those
products for which the country possesses the raw

42 THE TEN REPUBLICS

materials. At any rate, the fiscal policy has had
the effect of restricting the immigration so much
desired by the authorities, and has excited oppo-
sition from those who hold, as a certain class once
did in respect of the United States, that Argentina
should concentrate her attention on the huge
pastoral and agricultural industries for which
Nature has adapted her.

The prosperity of the industries referred to may
be said to date from 1881, when President Roca
put up to auction much of the outlying public
lands. Thereupon money flowed in from outside,
for foreign capitalists were encouraged to assist
the development of the country. Unfortunately,
the investors acted precipitately, and the Argen-
tine Government showed neither the will nor the
capacity to handle the crisis which followed. The
currency was prejudicially affected at the time,
but the country is once again prosperous.

But if Argentina welcomes foreigners, the op-
posite course is adopted by Venezuela, the only
''federal" state remaining to be noticed. Her
exploits under Castro have been referred to
already, and the same spirit is indicated in her
constitution which restricts many public offices —
that of members of Congress, for instance — to
Venezuelans born in the republic. Countries
awaiting development seldom put obstacles to the
inflow of the capital of which they stand in need,
and the policy of Venezuela has not brought her
financial prosperity. Her soil is rich, she has

THE REPUBLICS 43

a fine position on the Caribbean Sea, and her
proximity to the Panama Canal should be of
value in the future ; but at present her industries
are backward, and she possesses about 540 miles
of railway, though her area is eight times that
of England.

The legislative authority is vested in a Congress
consisting of a Chamber of Senators and a Cham-
ber of Deputies, the former elected by the State
legislatures, each of which sends two members, the
latter by direct vote of the people in the propor-
tion of one deputy to every thirty-five thousand
inhabitants. The President is elected by Con-
gress for a term of four years ; he possesses wide
administrative powers which are shared to some
extent by his ministers ; he may not hold his
office in two consecutive terms. Judicial power is
vested primarily in the Supreme Court, but the
provinces have special courts of their own. The
revenue is chiefly derived from the Customs House.
Additional charges are levied on imports from the
Antilles in the hope that the wholesale trade may
be transferred to Venezuela from the bonded
warehouses of islands like Trinidad (which is
only seven miles from the coast). By this means
a larger class of ships has been compelled to
serve the coast ports. The currency of Venezuela
is on a gold basis. The chief exports are coffee
and cocoa.

The records of Paraguay are in some ways un-
like those of the other South American republics :

44 THE TEN REPUBLICS

owing to the absence of minerals, she attracted little
attention from the Spaniards, who were glad to
hand over the management of such unproductive
territory to the Jesuits. She thus came to have a
character of her own, and when Spain lost her
hold upon her colonies she made herself inde-
pendent not only of the mother country, but also
of her powerful neighbours.

In area Paraguay is about twice the size of
England, and her population is rather more than
half a million. Under these circumstances one
would expect to find a preference for a centralized
form of government — the more so as there is no
great diversity in the habits and pursuits of the
people — and such is the case.

The administration of the country is vested in
a President in accordance with the constitution of
1870, which in many particulars follows that of
Argentina, especially in the legal provisions
which have been adopted. The President has
the assistance of five ministers, who are respon-
sible to Congress. Mindful of the lessons of
their early history, the Paraguayans have inserted
in their constitution provisions against a dictator-
ship. The President cannot be reappointed until
eight years have elapsed from the conclusion of
his term of office, and both he and his minis-
ters are specially forbidden to interfere in elec-
tions.

In practice the executive has large prerogatives.
The legislature consists of two Houses, both

THE REPUBLICS 45

elected directly by universal manhood suffrage,
a senator representing about twelve thousand and
a deputy six thousand voters. The members of
the legislature receive ;6^200 a year each. The
legislature, with the consent of the President,
appoints the judges of the Supreme Court, and
they in their turn decide on the constitutionality
of the laws that have been passed.

The influence of Argentina is apparent in many
ways. The Roman Catholic Church is officially
recognized, and definite steps are taken by the
Government to promote the development of the
country and to encourage immigration. More-
over, as in Argentina, the tariff is very high. But
there are indications that the existing duties may
be lowered in the future. Paraguay at present
does not enjoy the same industrial advantages as
her neighbour, and one may expect her, therefore,
to decide on a policy of her own.

Uruguay, with an area half as large again as
that of England, is the smallest of the South
American States ; she was once a Brazilian prov-
ince, and she continues to form a natural unit, yet
throughout the country there is much similarity
in the products and in the conditions of life.
Under these circumstances it was natural that it
should be organized on the centralized system.
The Legislature consists of two Houses ; the
Senators are appointed by an electoral college
chosen for the purpose by the people, but the
latter elect the Deputies, on the other hand, by

46 THE TEN REPUBLICS

direct vote. The Judicature, as at present estab-
lished, derives its authority from the assembly
thus constituted, which elects the five judges
composing the High Court of Justice. During
the recess the functions of the Legislature are
delegated to a committee consisting of two Sena-
tors and five Deputies. Executive power is in
the hands of a President assisted by a Council of
Ministers, his term of office lasting for four years.
The President appoints this Council, but its
resignation may be demanded by the Legislature,
which is thus in a position to enforce its views on
the other branches of government.

In the north there is a large Brazilian element
among the population, but the institutions of
Uruguay owe their character mainly to Argentina.
For instance, the tariff is highly protective — al-
though there are few manufactures to foster — and
official recognition is accorded to the Roman
Catholic Church.

Uruguay possesses certain advantages : a geo-
graphical situation on the estuary of the Plate
which both gives the command of that great water-
way and assures the country an equable climate,
and an even stronger moral situation — for neither
Brazil nor Argentina could look on with equa-
nimity if she were attacked by the other or by a
third power. Moreover, in addition to her rivers,
Uruguay is well supplied with railways, and she
has maintained a gold standard which should be
beneficial to her foreign trade and therefore to her

THE REPUBLICS 47

revenue— half of which is produced by the Customs
House.

Before passing to the Pacific States, attention
may be directed to Colombia, whose coastal
possessions on both oceans atone in some measure
for the loss of the Canal Zone. Colombia has not
only altered her constitution, she has entirely
changed its character. After the revolution she
was converted into a confederation, but in 1886
the States were deprived of the sovereignty and
became simple departments with governors ap-
pointed by the President. Some of their old
rights have, however, been left to them. It is
hoped that with the old divisions many causes
of disturbance will disappear and that Colombia
will thus gain the tranquillity necessary to her
finances.

Colombia is made up of one federal district,
fifteen departments and four territories. The
Legislature consists of a Senate and a Chamber
of Deputies ; the Upper Chamber being in effect,
nominated by the President, the Lower elected by
the direct votes of the people. The office of
President is held subject to certain restrictions,
but these have not always been observed. After
the troubles following on the loss of the Canal
Zone, some form of dictatorship was necessary in
the interests of order, and was acquiesced in by
the majority of the population. In this way the
Executive has come to hold large powers. The
Judicature has its chief seat in Bogota ; the judges

48 THE TEN REPUBLICS

of the Supreme Court are nominated for five years
and are eligible for reappointment.

The Constitution permits the practice of any
form of '' worship which is not contrary to Chris-
tian morals or the law," but the religion of the
country is expresslyrecognized as Roman Catholic.
The priests have great power, and education is
entirely in their hands. For education, however,
and for similar purposes, little money can be set
aside by the government, owing to the disturbances
which have impoverished the nation. These have
ended by depreciating the currency to such an
extent that financial assistance cannot easily be
obtained abroad, and many necessary undertakings
have still to be begun.

The communications leave much to be desired,
more railways being needed to develop the re-
sources of the country, for many of the most
productive centres are situated in the mountains.
Much of Colombia is unexplored and its area is
uncertain ; it may be taken as about equal to
that of Peru.

It is rich in minerals, and, were it not for the
distances to be traversed, most of the tropical
crops could be grown with profit. The products
include gold, coal, petroleum, emeralds and coffee.
Many of the industries have been nationalized.

South of Colombia is Ecuador, the area of
which cannot be given with accuracy, partly on
account of the insufficiency of the surveys and
partly on account of boundary disputes, one of

THE REPUBLICS 49

which relates to vast territory which is also claimed
by Peru. Under any estimate Ecuador must be
larger than England, but the population amounts
to barely two millions. Of these a very high
percentage, being illiterate, are debarred by the
constitution from voting, and thus the whites
form the governing class. Differences in rank,
it is true, are not recognized, but the Indians
occupy a definitely inferior station. The executive
power is vested in a President elected for four
years, and the Legislature in a Congress of two
Houses. Of these the Upper House consists of
Senators — two coming from each province — and
the Lower House of Deputies, elected on the basis
of one to every fifteen thousand of the population.

The judicial branch of the government consists
of a supreme court appointed by the Executive,
six superior courts in various districts and several
inferior courts.

The revenue is small, and is not expended to
the best advantage ; it is received chiefly from the
customs duties and also from the salt monopoly
and from taxes on liquor. Ecuador has little
mineral wealth, as far as is known, but she is
extremely rich in vegetation, for the winds that
have crossed the Atlantic are chilled by the
mountains, on the Eastern slopes of which they
deposit their moisture. Her chief export is cocoa.
** According to the constitution of 1884 the religion
of the republic is Roman Catholic Apostolic, and
all others are excluded."

50 THE TEN REPUBLICS

In relation to religion the attitude of Bolivia
resembles that of Ecuador : '^ the State recognises
and supports the Roman Apostolic Catholic relig-
ion, the public exercise of any other worship being
prohibited except in the colonies, where it is toler-
ated,"— in practice toleration exists. The Church,
moreover, controls education, although the muni-
cipalities are nominally responsible ; thus she
exercises considerable influence, for the right to
vote is not granted to the large proportion of the
population, which is illiterate. The voters, reduced
in number in this way, elect directly both the
Senators and the Deputies, who form the Legis-
lature, and the President, in whom the executive
power is vested. The President is elected for
four years, and then ceases to be eligible for a
term ; his decrees must be countersigned by the
Minister of the department concerned, the latter
being liable to prosecution before the Supreme
Court for any misconduct. The judges of this
court are selected by the Chamber of Deputies.

Bolivia, though maimed as the result of the
Chilian nitrate war, is the third in point of size of
the South American States, her area being eight
times that of England. Although much of it is
mountain and swamp, the constant supply of water
in Lake Titicaca, the tropical situation, and the
great diversity of climate made possible by the
mountains suggest a great agricultural future for
the country. Unfortunately she labours under
one great disadvantage ; the war referred to above

THE REPUBLICS

51

not only took from her a rich province, but de-
prived her of her outlet to the sea. Thus the
profits of her export trade have to be shared with
foreign nations who could extinguish it by joint
action. On the other hand, these nations are five
in number, and they are more likely to compete
for the trade than to stifle it. Even the mountain
railways are expensive to build and to administer,
and the river routes to the Amazon and the Plate are
not yet developed ; at present, obstacles like the
Falls of the Madeira River increase the cost of
transit. But, as will be seen in the chapter on
Bolivia, these obstacles are rapidly being over-
come. The exact value of Bolivian exports is
difficult to ascertain, for they are liable to be
classified among those of her neighbours ; they
consist largely of metals, the most important of
which is tin. The famous silver mines of Potosi
are in Bolivia.

Peril is almost the same size as Bolivia : it is
difficult to give an exact estimate of her area, for
the official figures are affected by political con-
siderations. There is naturally a temptation to
include all territory in dispute, and Peru, as the
mother colony of the Spaniards, has claims on the
unexplored regions to the centre of the continent.
Owing to these she has been involved in a number
of boundary disputes, which keep the population
excited and affect her credit prejudicially. Some
of these controversies have been referred to
arbitration with results satisfactory to both parties,

52 THE TEN REPUBLICS

for the States of South America are far less in
need of additional provinces than of the tran-
quillity afforded by an honourable peace. Un-
fortunately for Peru, the injuries she sustained in
the nitrate war with Chile caused her such heavy
financial losses that it is difficult for her to keep
herself in the advanced state of preparedness for
war which inclines an opponent to accept arbitra-
tion. Earthquakes and tidal waves have to be
enumerated also among the anxieties of Peru.

The executive power is exercised through a
President, whose decrees have to be countersigned
by a Minister. The President holds office for
four years, and is not immediately re-eligible.
Both he and his Senators and Deputies who
comprise the National Congress are elected by
direct voting. Senators must have an income of
;^ioo a year, or belong to a scientific profession ;
in the case of Deputies the money qualifications
are reduced to ^^50 with the same exception. The
pursuit of science apparently is not necessarily
lucrative. One of the duties of Congress is to
select the judges of the Supreme Court from lists
submitted by the executive.

The State protects the Roman Catholic Religion,
and does not permit the public exercise of any
other, but in Peru as in Bolivia the authorities are
tolerant towards other beliefs.

The land itself is extremely rich, cotton and sugar
being grown in large quantities ; guano still figures
among the exports, and in the mountains is found

THE REPUBLICS 53

almost every kind of mineral. This list by no
means exhausts the products of the country, which
include coffee, cocoa, rubber and the wool of the
sheep and llama. And it must not be forgotten
that Peru is the reputed home of the potato.

The losses of Peru and Bolivia have been the
gain of Chile; the nitrate beds which were the prize
of the war of 1879-82 have made a great difference
to a treasury that was none too full. At present
they provide a third of the national revenue, a
subsidy which allows the authorities to depend
less on import duties, which restrict trade. Chile
possesses a centralized government with a basis
theoretically democratic. Senators and Deputies,
who together form the legislative body, are elected
by direct vote, and they elect the President in-
directly. In the President, who holds office for
five years, with the usual proviso as to re-election,
is vested the executive power and also a modified
veto over legislation. It also rests with him to
nominate the governors of the provinces and to
appoint high judicial and ecclesiastical personages.
In the exercise of his functions he has the advice
of a cabinet of six ministers, and there is also a
Council of State which has to be consulted on
certain occasions.

The State preserves intimate relations with the
Roman Catholic Church, which receives a subsidy
from the National treasury ; at the same time full
religious toleration exists.

Chile is less rich in the precious metals than her

54 THE TEN REPUBLICS

sister states, but she produces a considerable
amount of copper. Her chief source of wealth,
the nitrate fields, has been already referred to and
mention must also be made of the coal mines that
are now being developed in Arauco and Concep-
cion. The increase in their output is of impor-
tance to Chilian industries and also to the
steamers which ply on the western coast.

The Chilian currency leaves a great deal to be
desired and all classes admit that it should be
placed upon a sounder basis. At present the paper
"peso" fluctuates in value.

It is thought that the fighting services would
render a good account of themselves in war, but
although the Tacna and Arica question still keeps
Chile estranged from Peru, there is no reason to
apprehend any resumption of hostilities. Other
disputes, especially those with Argentina, , have
been submitted to arbitration, and the cordial
relations between these two South American
Republics was afforded ample opportunity to dis-
play itself during the centennial festivities of last
year. Visits were exchanged by the Presidents
and the meetings were made the occasion for
cementing a friendship which, it is hoped, will
prove a lasting one.

CHAPTER III

ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS

At the root of all the problems which confront the
statesmen and philanthropists of the present day-
lies the question of the provision of food and the
necessities of life for the world's ever-increasing
population and of new markets for its expanding
industries. In the Old World of Europe and
Asia all the many inventions and devices of
science for prolonging and protecting the life of
the individual, for multiplying points of contact
between races, and for supplying the new wants
created by their intercommunication and material
progress, tend only to accentuate the fierceness of
the struggle for life. All our wars and rumours
of war may be traced back to this elementary and
insistent problem of food-supply, to the steady,
inarticulate pressure of millions actually or poten-
tially confronted with urgent want. The com-
plexity of modern life frequently obscures the
basic economic causes of political events. We
talk of Imperialism, socialism, patriotism, and
other forms of collective intellectual or social
activity as if they were something other than
manifestations and portents of economic pressure.

55

56 THE TEN REPUBLICS

Stranger still, statesmen and philanthropists,
while at pains to increase their country's birthrate
and to diminish its deathrate, continue solemnly
to discuss Utopian schemes of universal Brother-
hood and everlasting peace. But this grim spectre
of hunger cannot by any means be exorcised. For
centuries it has taken heavy toll of the toiling
millions of Asia, and now, despite a steady flow
of emigration, its black shadow lies across central
and western Europe. There is no setting aside
that inexorable law which, in time of need, pre-
scribes the survival of the fittest. Our modern
inventions and passing phases of humanitarianism
may for a time delay or mitigate its application ;
the exigencies of international finance may com-
plicate its results ; but the lesson of all history
stands clear that the ultimate ends of economic
pressure — war, pestilence and famine — can only be
averted by reducing that pressure, that is to say,
by providing new outlets and new sources of food
supply for those who would otherwise perish.

Looking in this light upon the modern world
and its complicated affairs, the recent progress
and vast possibilities of South America assume
a degree of importance which can hardly be
exaggerated, and the immediate destinies of the
human race are thereby brightened with very
justifiable hopes. It is only within the last few
years that the man in the street has come to
realize how great a measure of relief the neces-
sities of Europe have already derived from the

ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS 57

development of this amazingly fertile continent.
It has been left for the twentieth century to dis-
cover, by bloodless paths of commerce and railway
engineering, that Eldorado of which Ralegh and
the Spanish explorers dreamed ; to bring, from the
New World to the Old, well-won treasures more
precious than all the plundered gold of the Incas,
—the unbounded wealth of field and forest in those
virgin lands. A recent writer in the South
American supplement of The Times^ discussing
the future of the Latin Republics, has empha-
sized the importance of this point of view in a
passage which may appropriately be quoted : —

"Already, it would seem, the world is within
measurable distance of the day when the United
States, Europe's chief outlet and granary of the
past, will need its food supply for the support of
its 'own population ' ; already, in the utterance of
American statesmen, in the latest manifestations
of their world politics and finance, there are indi-
cations of the coming of this great economic
change. And coincident therewith, the barriers
by land and sea which have hitherto isolated
large tracts of the South American continent are
being broken down ; as if, indeed, these vast
regions had been kept in reserve against hu-
manity's day of need. It is but yesterday that
the Andes were conquered by the railway ; it is
only now that the Central States are being
brought into communication with the Atlantic
and Pacific seaboards : to-morrow, the piercing of
the Panama Canal will throw open, along eight
thousand miles of coastline, new gateways to

58 THE TEN REPUBLICS

commerce and human activity. There can be no
doubt that the completion of this notable enter-
prise will prove the beginning of a new epoch in
the world's commercial evolution, and that, for
many parts of the southern continent, it will mean
the dawn of an era of expansion and prosperity.
The prophecies of Humboldt and Agassiz bid fair
to be fulfilled in the near future."

For the purposes of the present work we are
concerned only with the Republics of South
America proper, those ten nations in the making
whose commercial, financial and intellectual pro-
gress asserts itself each day more impressively
upon the attention of the civilized world. To
give the general reader a clear and comprehensive
idea of that progress and of all it foreshadows, we
propose to outline briefly the general economic
conditions which obtain in these ten Republics
to-day, comparing their position and prospects
roughly with those which existed twenty-five
years ago. During this quarter of a century,
while the world has marvelled at the extra-
ordinary material expansion of the Northern Con-
tinent of America and wondered at the meteoric
rise of the modern Empire of Japan, these younger
branches of the Latin race have been steadily
emerging from their state of geographical isola-
tion on the one hand and political unrest on the
other. Almost unnoticed until a comparatively
recent date, their great cities have grown to
stately beauty and wise administration, challeng-

ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS 59

ing comparison with the world's best examples of
municipal government ; their railways have been
pushed out over high mountain ranges and across
teeming fastnesses of forest, linking up the wide
inland waterways with the Atlantic and Pacific
sea-boards. And, greatest of all their achieve-
ments, science and sanitation have triumphed
over the yellow fever peril, that dire scourge
which for long years held back the tide of immi-
gration, laying its dark shadow of pestilence
across some of the fairest and richest regions
on earth. The routing of the plague mosquito,
combined with the leading Republics' growing
stability of administration and recognition of
national responsibility, have made life and pro-
perty as safe in most places in South America as
they are in Central Europe, so that communities
which, twenty-five years ago, attracted only the
flotsam and jetsam of the world's adventurous
spirits, now draw from the Old World a steadily
flowing stream of industrious settlers. By the
efforts of these immigrants, and the influx of un-
limited capital, vast regions are rapidly being
brought under development, new channels being
found for enterprise and new rewards being offered
for human industry. It is certain that the next
generation will witness a material and intellectual
expansion of Latin America as remarkable as that
which for many years focused the attention of the
civilized world on the United States and Canada.
Already it is clear that the Argentine Republic,

6o THE TEN REPUBLICS

Uruguay and Southern Brazil are destined before
long to take the place of the United States as
chief suppliers of meat and grain to Europe.
Brazil's great exports of coffee and rubber repre-
sent merely the output of a fringe of that enor-
mous undeveloped land. Chile, with her nitrates
and great mineral wealth, Bolivia and Peru, with
their rich mines and rubber forests, are already
able, like the leading Republics, to show large
balances of trade in their favour, and these
resources are being, for the most part, intelli-
gently employed in the construction of railways,
harbour works, irrigation, and other reproductive
enterprises. The economic stability gradually
resulting from this industrial and agricultural
activity of Latin America has for some time past
been unmistakably reflected in the money markets
of the world, so that not only the labour but the
capital of Europe now seeks these fresh fields with
ever-increasing confidence.

Regarded in the order of their economic import-
ance and commercial development, the ten Repub-
lics may be roughly divided into three classes.
Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay are in
the first rank, their position and future greatness
fully assured ; Peru (for many years crippled by
the disastrous results of the Chilian War) and
Bolivia, in the second rank, may be said to be
now entering upon a period of national and well-
organized development. In the third rank,
Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Paraguay

ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS 6i

show unmistakable signs of industrial awakening
and generally improving conditions. The re-
sources of the last-named countries are undeniably
great, but their effective development depends
chiefly upon their obtaining and maintaining an
efficient and honest administration of public
affairs ; and in this direction the outlook is gener-
ally regarded as very hopeful. Elements of
unrest undoubtedly exist, but the average citizen
appears to have been led by the hard lessons
of adversity to realize that productive energies are
in the long run more satisfying, both to the nation
and to the individual, than the fearful joys of
political strife and civil wars. The Governments
of these countries, even in the midst of strife,
have clearly recognized their need for financial
reform and for securing to the foreign capitalist,
whose assistance they require, a generous measure
of protection and assurance of security.

To Great Britain, more than to any other
country, the prosperity and progress of the South
American Republics are matters of immediate
concern, for the simple reason that British manu-
facturers have hitherto supplied the greater part
of their needs, and that British capitalists have led
the way in financing the industrial and agricul-
tural development of the continent. Despite the
strenuous activities of her rivals, British trade,
thanks to the good name of the Englishman and
his early arrival in the field, still holds first place
in Buenos Aires, Rio, Montevideo, Santiago,

62 THE TEN REPUBLICS

Valparaiso and other centres of commerce. The
figures shown in the latest available statistics fur-
nish in themselves a conclusive argument and full
justification for those who, in continuing to direct
the activities of British traders to the unlimited
opportunities offered by the expansion of South
America, claim that the language, customs and
requirements of this enormous market of the
future deserve closer and more scientific study
than they are actually receiving. British enter-
prise led the way in these regions, and has already
reaped a rich reward for its confidence ; but the
rapid growth of manufacturers for export in the
United States and the closely organized foreign
trade of Germany have been steadily increasing
the pressure of competition for some time past,
and it will require keener attention and better
methods in future to retain the leading place.

According to the latest returns, the amount of
British capital invested in South American
Government bonds, railways' and tramways'
stock, and other securities quoted on the London
Stock Exchange, aggregated at the end of 1910
more than six hundred millions sterling, and the
average yield of these investments was about 4! per
cent per annum ; that is to say, British investors
draw annually from South America interest to the
amount of nearly ;^30,ooo,ooo. To emphasize the
significance of these automatically regular remit-
tances, we may observe that their amount is about
four times as large as the total which, with infinite

ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS 63

travail and groaning, the huge Chinese Empire
disburses annually to meet its obligations abroad
for foreign loans and indemnities. And this flow
of gold from South America to England is the
result of enterprises as beneficial to the borrowers
as to the lenders, the direct outcome of a progres-
sive and liberal financial policy on the part of the
Governments of the Republics concerned, which
affords an instructive object lesson to many a
country of the Old World.

Of these Republics, Argentina stands easily
first, for the British investments in the quoted
securities of that country alone amount to over
;^300,ooo,ooo, and this figure does not take into
account the very large but unascertainable amount
of capital sunk in land, cattle estancias, and other
private enterprises. How good are the uses to
which the Argentine has turned this stream of
capital may be inferred from two salient facts :
one, that the Republic now stands fourth among
the nations of the whole world in the matter of
railway development in proportion to population ;
the other, that its foreign trade averages over ;^20
per capita yearly and is rapidly growing. These,
amongst others, are facts sufficient to account for
the strenuous efforts which the United States and
Germany are making to establish themselves and
their trades in the good graces of the Argentines.
The United States, in particular, believes that
commerce, like kissing, goes often by favour, and
is doing its best, by the medium of the Inter-

64 THE TEN REPUBLICS

national Union of the American Republics, by the
development of the Pan-American ideal and the
gentle uses of the Monroe doctrine, by the Panama
Canal and the Pan-American railway schemes, to
divert northwards the activities of the Republics
whose trade has hitherto been chiefly to and from
England.

After Argentina, Brazil ranks next in order
of importance for the British investor, having
already absorbed over ;^i 50,000,000 of capital for
undertakings which yield an average return of
about 5 per cent. Chile and Uruguay come next,
with borrowings of i^5 1,000,000 and ^46,000,000
respectively, the return on which is approximately
4-2 per cent. These four States between them
account for nine-tenths of the present financial
and industrial activities of South America as re-
flected in the money-markets of the world. It
were, however, unwise to ignore or to minimize on
this account the opportunities which present them-
selves in the increasing activities of the other
Republics. What the leaders have done in the
past, favoured greatly by their geographical posi-
tion, will assuredly be accomplished also in the
near future by the other States, now that the
interior of the continent is being linked up with
both sea-boards by networks of railways, and cities
which have slept since the days of Pizarro hear
the voices of the engineer and the commercial
traveller in their midst. In the case of inland
States like Bolivia, Paraguay and Colombia, cut

ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS 65

off in the past from all access to the main channels
of communication and commerce, due allowance
must be made for the insuperable difficulties hither-
to prevalent. Looking to the future, however, we
may surely assume that if the four leading Repub-
lics have offered so rich a field for British capital
and enterprise in the past, the possibilities of the
future will be practically unlimited in these other
States, as their untapped resources are gradually
brought within the region of practical exploitation.
Turning next to the returns of trade, as signifi-
cant in their way as those of finance, we find that
the total value of imports and exports for the ten
Republics amounted in 1910 to nearly 350 millions
sterling. The following, in round numbers, are
the totals of each country for the years 1908 and

1910.

1908 1910

128,000,000 145,000,000

79,500,000 111,000,000

42,800,000 42,000,000

14,400,003 16,000,000

10,500,000 11,200,000

6,800,000 7,400,000

5,700,000 5,600,000

4 , 8co, coo 5 , 000, 000

3,000,000 3,000,000

1,500,000 1,400,000

Argentine Republic

Brazil .

Chile .

Uruguay

Perii (estimated)

Bolivia

Colombia

Venezuela

Ecuador

Paraguay

298,000,000 347,600,000

It will be observed that the first three countries
account between them for the greater part of the

F

66 THE TEN REPUBLICS

trade of the continent, and that the commercial
importance of Argentina and Brazil have been
increasing at a very remarkable rate. Roughly
speaking, Great Britain's share in the trade of the
three leading Republics has averaged for the past
twenty-five years about one-third of the whole,
Germany and the United States between them
accounting for about another third. Competition
is increasing, it is true, not only from these coun-
tries, but from Belgium, Italy, and France ; but
so also are opportunities and the number of
accessible regions, and British traders are in a
position of advantage in all the principal markets
of South America, because of the all-pervading
influences of that mass of British capital to which
we have referred. In forming an estimate of the
rate of material progress maintained by the
several Republics during the past twenty-five
years, an examination of the increase in their
respective populations, trades, and revenues will
afford the best standard of comparison. For
this purpose the following statistics are instruc-

tive:

(a) Population.

Revenue. Imports.

£ £
ARGENTINA.

Exports.
£

1882
1910

3,026,COO

6.,985,io7

1883)5,962,301 12,249,332
(a) 23,177,206 70,354,000

BRAZIL.

12,077,810

74,525,200

1882
19-10

12,260,000
20,515,000

11,548,859 19,115,000
31.315:3^5 47,871,974
(a) Estimated.

19,418,000
63,091,543

ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS 67

1882

I9I0

(a) Population,

2,219,180
4,100,000

Revenue.

CHILE.

8,244,515

(a) 11,815,050

Imports.

10,700,000
22,311,427

Exports.
£.

14,280,000
24,662,038

1882
1909

(b) 438,245
I, T 12,000

URUGUAY.
1,578,000
(a) 4,971,660

3,634,960
7,905,694

4,392,586
9,524,258

(c) 1876

1909

3,050,000
4,200,000

PERU.
1,332,030
2,518,062

2,417,909
4,356,132

3,163,427
6,134,374

1884

I9I0

1,172,156
2,180,170

BOLIVIA.

693,158
(d) 1,274,030

1,200,000
2,954,900

1,800,000

7,456,653

(e) 1882
1909

4,000,000
4,320,000

COLOMBIA.

930,012
2,887,420

2,471,111
2,112,209

3,702,823
3,102,669

1881
1909-10

2,075,245
2,664,000

VENEZUELA.
1,160,200 2,960,000
(d) 1,996,000 2,243,200

2,260,000
3,422,550

1882
1909

950,000
1,600,000

ECUADOR.

(a) 630,500
1,637,069

1,870,424

1,093,958
3,000,621

1882
1909

346,048
633,000

PARAGUAY.
100,000

(0 443,916

264,425
757,590

330,135
1,027,328

The excess of Exports over Imports, common to
all the Republics, is a significant feature of these

(a) Estimated, (b) Partial census, 1880. (c) Including^ nitrate
territory, now in possession of Chile, (d) 1909. (e) Including
PanamA, since seceded, (f) 1908.

68 THE TEN REPUBLICS

Statistics, and indicative of a generally healthy
condition of expansion.

Turning now from the prosaic business of trade
returns, let us consider the progress made by the
leading Republics in other directions, notably in
railway construction, in the provision of harbours
and docks, in sanitation and education. The
difference between the present-day condition of
Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Valparaiso and
other capitals with that which existed twenty-five
years ago is such that travellers revisiting these
countries find it difficult to reconstruct their
memories of those bygone days. The condition
of a country's capital may generally be taken as
the outward and visible sign of the nation's in-
ward and spiritual graces, or disgraces. In its
streets and public places the traveller may read
the lessons of its past and gauge its hopes for the
future ; in its harbours and railway termini he
may hear the throbbing murmur of expanding
life or the drowsy note that presages decay.

Let us glance first at Buenos Aires. Twenty-
five years ago, on days when the fierce pampero
blew, it was a common sight to see cargo being
landed from the stranded lighters in the river
by means of high-wheeled carts, and passengers
were either brought ashore in the same way or on
the backs of Italian porters. In spite of the dis-
advantages of its position in this respect, however,
the city had already firmly established its claims
as leader of commerce and culture among the

ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS 69

Latin Republics, already calling itself with just
pride the Paris of South America. In 1882
Argentina was still drawing supplies of wheat
and flour from Chile and the United States, but
there were already twenty-four lines of steamers
connecting Buenos Aires with Europe and laying
the foundations of a trade which now bids fair
to rival that of Chicago. The city then boasted
twenty-two daily papers and twenty-five theatres,
and was known throughout the world as a place
remarkable for a bustling and business-like activity
not usually associated with the works and ways
of the Latin races. To-day, trunk lines of railway
unite the capital of the Republic with all the
provincial centres of trade and with the neigh-
bouring States, while no less than thirty-nine
steamship lines compete for its rich cargoes and
keep up its communications with all parts of the
world. Its vast docks can accommodate the largest
ocean-going freighters ; along its wharves and
quays the ships of all nations lie close-packed,
stem to stern, a busy hive of industry. And all
this teeming wealth and purposeful energy owes
its origin and its sustenance to the fruitful soil
of the wide-stretching pampas where the emigrant
finds as fair and free a field for his labours as
in Canada, to the flocks and herds of the estancias
which furnish Europe, and particularly England,
with inexhaustible supplies of meat and hides and
wool. Into the great central warehouse of the
city run twelve lines of railway ; within its walls

70 THE TEN REPUBLICS

are piled, roof-high, the abundant produce of all
parts of the republic. The development of many
parts of the country, especially towards the south,
being still in what may be termed the rudi-
mentary stage, the city of Buenos Aires may
confidently look forward to a fuller tide of pros-
perity and expansion in the near future. But its
actual achievements and progressive energies are
sufficiently remarkable. Side by side with the
growth of its trade and industries, the city has
steadily advanced, and with good cause, its claims
to rival Paris as the premier city of the Latin
world. Its population of over a million and a
quarter constitute a community as intelligent,
cultivated and socially progressive as any on
earth. In the matter of well-organized and efficient
public services and education, indeed, the Argentine
Republic has little to learn from Europe. Mr. John
Barrett, Director of the International Bureau of
American Republics, observed last year that ''if
the standards required for the practice of the
learned professions of the Latin-American Re-
publics were put alongside the standards required
by the United States, the comparison would be
unfortunate for the latter." In the decoration,
sanitation and municipal administration of their
city, the inhabitants of Buenos Aires have good
cause for pride. The mortality of the city is
14*61 per 1000.

A few miles down the River Plate from Buenos
Aires, on the opposite bank, lies Montevideo, in

ECONOxMiC AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS 71

a situation so favourable that, had it not been for
long years of- political unrest, the city might well
have out-rivalled the Argentine capital in com-
mercial activity and prosperity. Its population
in 1875 was 127,000; it is reckoned today at
320,000, of which roughly one-third are foreigners,
chiefly of Spanish or Italian birth. Thanks to the
efficient administration inaugurated by President
Williman, and to the country's wonderful climate
and other geographical advantages, there is every
reason to anticipate that, despite the persistence
of certain turbulent elements in the body politic,
and the *' mafiana" propensities which are still a
characteristic of the "Banda Oriental," Uruguay
is destined to achieve a very important commercial
position in the near future. The Republic is the
smallest of all the South American States (in
area less than the United Kingdom), but in 1909
it recorded a balance of trade in its favour amount-
ing to no less than ;^i, 700,000, and the wealth of
its agricultural and pastoral resources is propor-
tionately greater than that of any other part of the
continent. With the development of railways, now
actively proceeding, Montevideo must naturally
become the outlet not only for its own hinterland^
but also for large areas of Brazil and Argentina.
Twenty-five years ago, the Republic was already
considered as a redoubtable trade competitor of
the United States, and it was recognized by
political economists in that country that, given only
permanent peace within its borders, its natural

72 THE TEN REPUBLICS

advantages were very great. In 1888, with a
population of less than half a million, and no
more than 540,000 acres of land under cultivation,
the Republic produced 5,000,000 bushels of grain.
To-day, with about 85 per cent, of its lands still
undeveloped, it exports pastoral produce alone to
the average value of ;^7, 000,000.

The city itself is a very pleasant and beautiful
place, revelling in a delightful and healthy climate.
With its pure air and steady sunshine and the clear
look from its terraced limestone ridge that looks out
across the bay ; with the lowest recorded death
rate of any city of modern times, and a plentiful
and cheap supply of the necessities of life ; with
its women far-famed for their beauty and its easy-
going, light-hearted people, — Montevideo, apart
from all inducements of profit, must attract in in-
creasing measure the holiday-makers and travellers
of both worlds.

British financiers perceived long since the pos-
sibilities of this flourishing State, and British
investments therein are accordingly on an im-
portant scale. All the railways which connect the
capital with the interior have been built with
British capital.

Of all the cities of South America, none can
show such wonderful changes of recent years as
Rio de Janeiro — Rio, loveliest of harbours and
most beautifully situated of capitals, which until
a few years ago lay under the enduring terror of
the Yellow Fever scourge. Space does not per-

ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS 73

mit us to tell here the wonderful and dramatic
tale of the triumph of modern science over the
mosquito which for centuries had made Rio a
byword among seafaring men, or to describe the
successful war of sanitation waged by Dr. Cruz
and his fellow-workers, a war which converted
the Brazilian capital from being a home of pesti-
lence to a healthy and desirable place of residence.
An early writer speaks of Rio as "a gloriously
whitened sepulchre," and thus describes the state
of the city in 1889 : —

"A few years ago there was not even a sewer
in Rio, and all the garbage and offal of the city
was carried through the streets on the heads of
men, and dumped into the sea. Now, there are
drains under the principal streets, but they seem
to be of little use, as the main thoroughfares are
abominable, and one wonders what the less pre-
tentious ones may be. The pavements are of the
roughest cobble-stone, the streets are so narrow
that scarcely a breath of air can enter them,
and the sunshine cannot reach the pools of filth
which steam and fester in the gutters, breeding
plagues. . . .

" Rio is a succession of disappointments. The
only really pretty place is the Botanical Garden,
which serves to illustrate what the whole city
might be with the exercise of a little taste and the
expenditure of a trifling sum of money."

Well, the ''trifling sum of money" has been
spent ; the apathy and squalor of those days,
chiefly due to the constant fear of Yellow Fever,

74 THE TEN REPUBLICS

have passed for ever, and the Rio of to-day is as
clean and healthy a capital as the traveller can
desire. Most of its notable improvements are of
comparatively recent date ; a few years ago,
travellers were impressed by the unsurpassed
beauty of the harbour and the picturesque loca-
tion of the city, nestling between the hills and
the sea ; but the general aspect of the capital was
disappointing, partly because of a certain hap-
hazard quality in its construction, a lack of dignity
and continuity in the work of man which was
emphasized by its magnificent background of
tropical scenery and vegetation. Here, again, it
needed the expenditure of money, no trifling sum
this time, and much organized energy, to raise
Rio from her former lamentable condition. The
city improvement scheme of 1903, long considered,
devoted twelve millions sterling to this work. It
provided for the construction of a quay and broad
avenue along the shore line, over two miles long ;
for the prolongation to the sea of the Canal which
is known as the Mangue, with a well-lighted
avenue on either side, nearly two miles in length ;
for the construction of an avenue up to the Quinta
da Boa Vista, once the residence of Dom Pedro ;
for the levelling of hills and the widening of streets,
for harbour works, drainage, tramways, and the
installation of a hydraulic plant for the supply of
light and power.

Whatever may have been the condition of Rio
in former days, there is no doubt that a wonderful

ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS 75

transformation has taken place within the last
decade. Many of the squalid old colonial
quarters have been cleared away, their narrow
streets replaced by splendid avenues planted with
fine trees ; boulevards, gay with flower-beds, cross
the city in all directions and stretch out into
the distant suburbs. One of these fine thorough-
fares crosses the city at its narrowest part ; at the
point where it meets the coast it is joined by
another and still longer avenue named the
Beiramar, which, sweeping around the shores
of the harbour, includes the most picturesque
and pleasant quarter of the town. This Beiramar
recalls to mind the Avenida of Lisbon ; over
four miles in length, it is one of the finest
promenades in the world. To open up com-
munication with the coast beyond, two tunnels
have been pierced through the rock, and here,
at a distance of some forty minutes by rail
from the capital, a new seaside town is spring-
ing up, much frequented as a health resort and
bathing-place in the summer months.

Brazil is remarkable, amongst all the South
American Republics, for the comparatively large
proportion of its urban population. It is not
possible in this chapter to describe the marvellous
growth and activities of its chief towns : Sab
Paulo and Santos, the flourishing centres of
the world's chief coffee supply ; Para and Manaos,
that live and thrive on rubber ; Pernambuco and
Bahia, marts for sugar and cotton ; Belem,

76 THE TEN REPUBLICS

whither, through the Amazon valley, flows trade
from Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela ;
Porto Alegre and Pelotas, outlets for the cattle-
breeding produce of Rio Grande do Sul. All of
these names are already becoming familiar
throughout the world as inexhaustible sources
of trade staples. And the Republic is making
timely preparation for the commercial expansion
of a near future ; docks and harbours, deep-water
wharves, have been or are being constructed to
meet the requirements of the largest vessels and
quick transhipment, the Brazilian Government
being fully alive to the keenness of competition
and the dangers of delay. Over two millions
sterling has been expended of late on dock
accommodation at the port of Rio, and the harbour
improvement works now being carried out by a
British Company will cost four millions. At
Santos a first-rate harbour has been provided ;
at Recife, the dredging and breakwater scheme,
to be completed in 1914, is estimated to cost
;^3, 360,000. At Para, four millions sterling are
being spent on harbour improvements; at Manaos,
floating piers and other works are being provided
to obviate the difficulties created for traffic by the
great differences between normal and flood levels
on the Rio Negro. At the same time, railway
construction is being vigorously pushed on into
the interior, every line adding to the busy traffic
of these ports. And in all these important enter-
prises, British capital and British materials con-

ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS 77

tinue to find increasing opportunities and steady
profits.

To refer in detail to all the capitals and pro-
vincial cities of the South American Republics
would require a volume, but Valparaiso's and
Santiago de Chile's claims as centres of human
activity and expansion cannot be overlooked.
Valparaiso, the premier seaport of the western
coast, stands out as a monument to the courage
and energy of the Chilian people. Its growth
and prosperity, despite many natural obstacles
and its geographical disadvantages, have been
made possible by the vigorous optimism and
enterprise of a race which combines all the intel-
ligence of the Latin with the persistent audacity
of the Anglo-Saxon. The energies of the
Chilenos have, indeed, been characterized in
the past by a somewhat militant quality, of
which we may find proof in the fact that the
Republic's territories to-day include a coast-line
that was formerly Bolivia's and valuable nitrate
regions that belonged originally to Peru, and that,
by the partition of Patagonia, her frontiers now
stretch southwards to the Straits of Magellan.
With the completion of the Transandine Railway
and the prospect of the opening of the Panama
Canal, Valparaiso and Santiago have assumed a
new importance and suggest new visions of great-
ness amongst the leading cities of the New World.
It is indeed difficult to exaggerate the impetus
which the completion of these great undertakings

78 THE TEN REPUBLICS

must give to all the activities of the ChiHan
Republic.

Almost completely destroyed by the terrible
earthquake of the 27th August, 1906, Valparaiso's
white buildings rise imposingly to-day, climbing
the foothills from the narrow marge of the sea.
Whether approached by land or by water, the first
impressions of this land of nitrates and cattle,
timber and wine, delight the eye. From Valparaiso
the line to Santiago runs, it is true, through a
barren rock-strewn land ; but suddenly emerging
from its desolation, the traveller finds himself in
the heart of a luxuriant and beautiful city, and
beholds one of the most stately of those broad
avenues which the Latin races love, the far-
famed Alameda — a broad highway lined by magni-
ficent poplars, flanked by imposing buildings and
beautified by statuary, fountains and flowers.
Around the strangely picturesque pile of rocks
known as Santa Lucia (cast up by some titanic
freak in the midst of the plain on which the city
stands), stretching out along both banks of the
Mapocho river, this furthest home of the Latin
race has attained a character and a dignity of
its own which found suitable expression last year
in the inauguration of that palace of Arts built to
commemorate at the capital the centenary of the
nation's independence. To the East and North-
east of the city rise the stern, snow-capped
barriers of the Andes, clear against the blue ; to
the West, hidden by the low coast range, lies the

ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS 79

Pacific, highway to future glories, while far into
the South stretches the fertile Valley of Chile, a
storehouse of wealth in forest and field, that shall
endure and increase when the last shipload of
nitrate has been gathered.

Of Lima, the ancient capital of Peru, city of
imperishable memories instinct with the pathos of
a vanished civilization and a gentle race departed,
home of beautiful women and Court of the
viceroys of proud Spain ; of Bogota of the Holy
Faith, the mountain capital of Colombia; of
Caracas, nestling in its valley by the shores of
the Caribbean ; of Quito, La Paz and Asuncion,
the capitals of Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay,
there is not space here to tell. Generally speaking,
it may be said that, in comparison with the bustling
commercial centres of Argentina and Chile and
Brazil, these Republics are still— some more, some
less — in that blissful but unremunerative state
which prefers the certainty of a long siesta to the
chances of any form of arduous activity. But
what they lose in profitable opportunities, they
gain, for the traveller at least, in picturesque
qualities of old-world charm and philosophic
repose, and for the sake of the wanderers of the
future, it may be hoped that some of these restful
oases may yet be spared by the rising tide of South
America's prosperous commercialism.

Those who have visited Asuncion, for instance,
bring away from that altogether delightful capital
lastinc" memories of its wealth of scent and colour

8o THE TEN REPUBLICS

and of the dole e far niente charm of existence in a
land where memories of departed glories mingle
with the fragrance of roses and jasmine. Para-
guay, devastated by the long wars and tyranny of
the fiendish Lopez, miserable years of strife which
killed off nine-tenths of the adult male population
(1868-73), may to-day be described as in a period of
leisurely convalescence. But the Paraguay and Pil-
comayo rivers are destined to be the main arteries
of a great traffic from Bolivia and Brazil, and
Asuncion will assuredly hear those urgent voices of
the modern world which shall rouse her from her
slumbers.

With the completion of the Panama Canal, a
great change must come over the spirit of the old-
world dreams of the Republics whose coasts lie
upon the Pacific, on the north and west of the con-
tinent. The purchasing power and foreign trade
of Ecuador, Colombia and Peru evidently depend
in the first instance upon the development of their
great natural resources by increased means of
communication and the aid of foreign capital ; by
their geographical situation these countries will be
the first to reap the benefits of the opening of the
world's new commercial highway, their long years
of isolation ended and their territories thrown open
to many a lucrative enterprise. To Ecuador, in
particular, cut off from her neighbours on land by
impenetrable forests and high mountain ranges, the
Panama Canal bids fair to be the key which shall
open the golden door of the future.

ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS 81

Colombia has been well described as the '' won-
derland of opportunity," a wonderland hitherto
almost unexplored in many parts. ** Measured by
the standard of other countries," says Mr. John
Barrett, '*it can be stated without exaggeration
that the Republic, in proportion to area and popu-
lation, is the richest of all in the variety and extent
of its undeveloped resources, fullest in promise for
future growth and reward to mankind." Its entire
coast-line on the Pacific is rich in gold-bearing
alluvial ; many deposits are already being profit-
ably worked, but the cordillera region has scarcely
been touched by explorers. In addition to vast
mineral wealth, Colombia possesses great pastoral
and agricultural resources.

The wealth of the mines of Bolivia, like that of
Peru, became proverbial in Europe as far back as
the sixteenth century. It has been estimated that
the mines gave to the world, between the years
1540 and 1750, gold and silver to the value of
;6^420,ooo,ooo, most of which went either to Spain
or to the gallant British freebooters and buccaneers
who lived upon the plunder of her galleons. But
Bolivia of to-day is not only a mineral treasure-
house ; its fertile lands and plateaux on the eastern
slopes of the Andes present all the conditions most
favourable for European settlers and for agri-
culture, while the forests of its lowlands are rich in
rubber and cinchona, cacao and many kinds of
valuable timber. A fact of special interest lies in
the unusual strength of Germany's commercial

G

82 THE TEN REPUBLICS

position in this Republic. Our Teutonic friends
realized at an early period the country's potential
opportunities and Avealth, so that, at a time when
England remained practically unrepresented in
Bolivia, there were German agents in all her prin-
cipal towns. In 1908 Germany headed the list of
importing countries ; since then her position has
been successfully challenged by the United States
and Great Britain.

The finances and commerce of Peru were seriously
disturbed for years by the losses which she suffered
at the hands of Chile, but the last message to
Congress of President Leguia points to steady
improvement. Railway construction is being
actively advanced, and it is expected that before
the completion of the Panama Canal the northern
and southern systems will have been linked up as
part of the Pan-American scheme, that a line will
cross the Andes and another connect the plateaux
of the Cordillera with the tributaries of the Upper
Amazon and the important inland port of Iquitos.
Peru alone, of all the South American Republics,
enjoys the advantage of outlets to both oceans,
the Amazon being navigable from Iquitos across
2,100 miles of the continent for sea-going vessels,
which carry her produce without transhipment
to New York and Europe. Copper, silver,
rubber, and sugar are her present chief sources of
wealth, but the development of her petroleum
fields is full of promise.

Venezuela has suffered in the eyes of Europe by

ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS 83

reason of President Castro's quarrels with foreign
concessionaries and consequent complications with
foreign Governments, but the new and enlight-
ened policy of President Gomez has successfully-
put an end to this unfortunate state of affairs, and
there now appears every reason to hope that the
country's former prosperity will gradually be
restored. The foreign trade of the Republic in
1909 showed a very material increase over that of
1908, and, if the Venezuelan Government con-
tinues to display due regard for the security of
vested interests, it may safely be assumed that the
capital required for the construction of railways
and other public works will flow as freely into
Venezuela as to any other part of the continent.

The question of the improvement and extension
of internal communications, that is to say, of rail-
way construction, is clearly the crucial question in
South America to-day. The marvellous pros-
perity of Argentina affords conclusive evidence
of the rewards that follow swiftly upon the adoption
of an energetic and liberal railway policy, an
object-lesson as instructive in its way as the
results of the opposite policy which we see in
China and Persia at the present moment.
Throughout the South American Republics the
progress of each State may fairly be expressed in
terms of railways and docks ; given these, the
tide of national prosperity flows steadily in ever-
increasing volume through fast-multiplying chan-
nels of human industry. Small wonder, then.

84

THE TEN REPUBLICS

that the map of the southern continent is being
rapidly intersected in every direction with lines
that stand for railways under construction or pro-
jected. A calculation from the most recent figures
and information obtainable shows that the mileage
of railways built, building or under construction
was approximately as follows : —

Built.

Building.

Projected

Argentina (1909)

16,150

3,720

8,400

Brazil (1910)

13,270

2,900

5,000

Chile ( ,, )

3,384

1,552

800

Uruguay ( ,, )

1,500

310

250

Bolivia ( „ )

530

320

400

Colombia (1909)

500

—

1,570

Ecuador ( ,, )

316

—

—

Paraguay ( ,, )

^55

70

—

Peru (1910)

1,520

300

900

Venezuela (1909)

640
37,965

—

—

Totals.

9,172

17,320

The Argentine railways make a veritable net-
work of lines stretching out on all sides from
Buenos Aires as a centre. The rapidity with
which their development has proceeded may be
gauged by the fact that in 1883 the Republic
had no more than 567 miles open to traffic. The
most important of the existing systems parallel
each other in a manner which, under a less en-
lightened policy, might have been regarded as
dangerously competitive, but which is fully
justified by results. They extend northwards to the

ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS 85

frontier at La Quiaca ; thence to join the Antofa-
gasta system at Tupiza ; thence to the line which
opens up the region of Lake Titicaca, with La
Paz for its objective point. Southwards they ex-
tend to the rapidly growing port of Bahia Blanca,
whence a line is projected to cross the Andes via
Neuquen, to the Pacific, connecting in turn with
Valparaiso and Santiago. And Buenos Aires is fully
alive to the need of timely provision for handling
the sea-borne commerce, which must grow far
beyond its present limits with every year's develop-
ment of the country ; an indication of the magni-
tude of her scheme of expansion is given in the
contract just signed with a British Company for
port improvements costing no less than ;^5, 500,000.
When the sections of longitudinal railway now
under construction by British contractors in Chile
are completed, that Republic will own a system,
connecting by means of the Transandine with
Argentina, which will extend from the Peruvian
frontier on the north to the extreme south of
Patagonia. Bolivia also is constructing a system
which will give La Paz three separate outlets to
the Pacific. Brazil, which in 1883 had 3,023
miles of line in operation, has now through*
connection with Buenos Aires to the south and
expects before long to connect with Pernambuco
to the north. Present development in this country,
however, is chiefly centred in the provision of
lines running east and west. The important line
from Santos to Corumba on the Bolivian frontier

86 THE TEN REPUBLICS

will ultimately be linked up with the Antofagasta
system, thus making another trans-continental
route. And, simultaneously with the building of
railways, a great deal of excellent work is being
done by the Brazilian Government in the improve-
ment of the waterways which serve as feeders to
the trade of the Amazon, Paraguay and other
great rivers. Thus the head-waters of the Ara-
guaya will be connected with the Minas Geraes
and the Rio de Janeiro railway systems, and the
Paraguay river will be connected with the Sao Paulo
system at Corumba, thus providing an all-Brazilian
route to Matto Grosso and Bolivia. The head-
waters of the Sao Francisco are already in com-
munication with the sea, while the rapids of Paulo
Affonso (probably the largest in the world) are
bridged by a railway. Similarly, the Uruguay
river is linked up with the coast by a railway in
Brazilian territory. The rapids of the Tocantins
are about to be bridged, so as to allow of naviga-
tion from the sea, at Para, to the very heart of
Brazil. More important still, the short distance
between the sources of the great Guapore and
Paraguay rivers is to be covered by another line,
which will unite Para and Buenos Aires through
the interior of the continent. The achievement of
this undertaking awaits only the construction of a
railway, the insignificant length of which may be
inferred from the fact that canoes are regularly
carried from one river to the other, and of another
short line skirting the rapids of the Madeira and

ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS 87

Mamore rivers, which is already under construc-
tion.

The course of the marvellous journey which
will be made possible by these undertakings may
readily be followed on the map. Starting at
Belem (Para), the traveller will ascend the Amazon
and Madeira rivers to the village of Santo Antonio*
just within the State of Matto Grosso. Here he
will take the railway to the Guajara-mirim Rapids,
whence another steamer, ascending the Mamore
and Guapore rivers, will land him at the village
of Matto Grosso, a place already in existence
before the foundation of the present State capital.
This once flourishing place, now in decay, will no
doubt recover its importance with the coming of
the railways. From the southern terminus of this
line the traveller will proceed, probably in a small
stern-wheeler, to Corumba, whence good steamers
ply down the Paraguay and Parana rivers.

Looking at the continent as a whole, the ten
Republics should before long possess 50,000
miles of railway in working. Already nearly
40,000 miles have been built, and the remainder
are under construction. There are, besides, defi-
nitely projected lines covering a distance of 20,000
miles more, but some of these have been projected
for a long time. The facts as stated are, however,
sufficient to show that the Republics as a whole
are alive to the necessity of developing their re-
sources and bringing the produce of the interior
by rapid transit to the sea-board.

88 THE TEN REPUBLICS

Although in the past the financing and con-
struction of South American railways has been,
to a great extent, a British preserve, and akhough
there is every reason to anticipate that the con-
tinued development of the Continent will in the
future depend largely on British capital and en-
gineering science, absorbing at the same time
large quantities of British material, it is im-
possible to overlook the importance of the
changes which the completion of the Panama
Canal will inevitably effect in the future com-
merce and economics of the northern and western
regions of the continent. It would be foolish to
ignore the fact that the political ascendency of the
United States in Central America must entail
certain results in the nature of economic gravita-
tion. Amongst many indications of the United
States Government's recognition of the vital
importance of increasing by all possible means
its commercial and political relations with the
Latin Republics, none is more significant than
the official support given to the Pan-American
railway scheme, a scheme which, while purely
commercial in theory, expresses by its very
name political ambitions and ideals of a very
definite kind. Space does not permit us to refer
at any length to this stupendous conception ;
suffice it to say that, for the present, the im-
mediate objective lies in the completion, before
191 5, of through-traffic between Mexico City and
the Isthmus. Of the total length of 10,116 miles

ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS 89

required to connect New York with Buenos Aires,
about two-thirds have already been constructed,
and the Pan-American Railway Committee con-
fidently expects the completion of the whole within
the next few years. The only important gap lies
in the section between Panama and Lake Titicaca,
and once the Isthmus has been pierced it may
safely be predicted that all political and financial
difficulties will rapidly be solved.

In conclusion, a word may be said as to what
this making of the Panama Canal will mean to
South America on the one hand and to Great
Britain on the other. It will mean, in the first
place, vital changes in the world's great trade-
routes and the readjustment of many economic
conditions and values. It will halve the voyage
from Liverpool to San Francisco and greatly re-
duce the distance from British ports to the chief
centres of trade on the Pacific coast of North and
South America, from Vancouver to Valparaiso.
There will be, for instance, a saving of some
five thousand miles by the new route thus opened
to Guayaquil, and what this must mean to the
development of trade with Chile and Peru will be
self-evident to those who are familiar with the
relation of distance to freights, and the immediate
effect of any appreciable difference in freight-
rates in determining the movement of staples. It
is clear that New York's geographical propinquity
to the Canal must seriously reduce the advantages
hitherto enjoyed by British shippers, and that, on

90 THE TEN REPUBLICS

many lines of international traffic, American
freight rates will be in a position of undeniable
superiority. By the construction of the Canal
America will gain access to the markets of the
Pacific sea-board of the southern continent, and to
Australia and Japan, under conditions which must
eventually result in formidable competition to our
overseas carrying trade. Nevertheless, many
competent observers anticipate that, at the outset,
non-American shipping will profit from the impetus
which the canal will bring to the trade of the
world. Mr. McLellan, in the North American
Review^ for example, says : —

" Roughly speaking, the distance by water from
Europe to the principal ports of California and
Oregon is about 14,000 miles, and to the principal
ports of Chile and Peru about 10,000 miles.
Freights, at their present figure, make it im-
possible for small steamers of the tramp class to
engage in trades which, owing to the long dis-
tances required to be travelled, offer no induce-
ment. But when the present 14,000-mile stretch
is reduced to about 7,000 miles and the 10,000
miles to 4,000 through gaining admittance into
the Pacific via Panama instead of via Cape Horn,
European ship-owners see at a glance that this
tremendous reduction in mileage represents the
difference between profit and loss, and they will
not hesitate to send their small, low-powered
vessels into the Pacific to seek their fortunes."

The writer goes on to predict that either a large
number of new and cheaply built ships will be

ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS 91

sent by British and other European owners to the
regions round about Panama, or that the vessels
now employed in the congested trade of the Far
East will be diverted to the Pacific. All this, of
course, is largely surmise, and much will depend
on the manner in which the Canal is held and
administered as a highway for all-comers, but
come what may, this much is certain, namely,
that the completion of this titanic feat of engineer-
ing cannot fail to have a notable and immediate
effect upon the fortunes of the nations in the mak-
ing on the Pacific coast of South America. This
is as certain as the melancholy isolation which
awaits the storm-tossed seas that beat upon Cape
Horn. If the wonderful record of the Argentine
Republic's prosperous growth is not equalled and
even surpassed by the north-west of the con-
tinent, it will not be for lack of opportunities, but
by reason of failure to rise to them.

CHAPTER IV

PANAMA

It seems one of the most pathetic facts of history
that Columbus should have spent the last months
of his adventurous life in fruitless endeavour to
find a natural passage across the Isthmus, and
that he died a disappointed but not disillusioned
man. Following the lead thus set by one of the
greatest of discoverers, others pursued the same
aim, all of them believing in the existence of
a waterway connecting the Atlantic with the
Pacific Ocean. For many years thereafter scheme
after scheme was floated, and lives and money were
expended in the effort to discover the supposed
secret of the Isthmus. Successive Kings of Spain
and Portugal, explorers and buccaneers, charla-
tans and savants^ scientists and treasure-hunters,
all vied with one another in the determination to
succeed in the quest, and all failed. A hundred
years ago, however, the investigations and re-
searches of Humboldt resulted in turning popular
interest in the subject to a fresh and sounder
direction. It was the beginning of a new era for
Panama.

92

PANAMA 93

Christopher Columbus first set foot on the soil
of what is now the Republic of Panama on
November 2nd, 1502 ; and 401 years afterwards,
almost to a day — on November 3rd, 1903 — the
Republic of Panama, after much bloodshed, form-
ally declared its independence from Spain.

Samples of gold ore which Columbus obtained
from the Indians having been transmitted to the
Court of Castile, the fanciful name of " Castle of
Gold " was conferred on the newly discovered
region. Diego de Nicuesa was the first traveller
to follow Columbus, and he took possession of the
Isthmus '' in the name of God," only, however, to
perish miserably with most of his men from the
effects of the climate and slow starvation.

After him came Balboa, the discoverer of the
Pacific, whose fabulous feats are generally dis-
missed by the history books in a few words,
although he should rank second to Columbus.
He was put to death by the Governor of Darien
in 1517, that personage being jealous of his
achievements. It is noteworthy that the brilliant
but infamous Pizarro served as Balboa's lieutenant.
Next, the original settlement of **01d Panama"
was founded (1518) by the Spanish explorers,
only to be sacked and burned by Captain Henry
Morgan, whose crowning piratical achievement it
was. To this day some crumbling ruins of Old
Panama are the joy and wonderment of the
traveller, and in his Panama Patchwork the late
James Stanley Gilbert says : —

94 THE TEN REPUBLICS

" Cloud-crested San Lorenzo g-uards

Th^Chagres' entrance still,
Tho' o'er each stone clense moss has grown

And earth his moat doth fill ;
His bastions, feeble with decay,

Steadfastly view the sea.
And sternly wait the certain fate

The ages shall decree."

For the hundred years 1719-1821, the Isthmus
was composed of the Spanish-ruled provinces of
Panama and Veraguas (''-New Granada ") ; but in
the last-named year the Isthmians followed the
example of other South American peoples, and
obtained their freedom from Spanish rule without
bloodshed. The actual date of this '' declaration "
was November 28th, i82if

In the days of the gold discovery in California
in 1849, a great number of bad characters were
attracted to the Isthmus, and many robberies of
gold in transit took place. During this time
there were various suggestions and schemes put
forward for constructing ''a railway across the
Isthmus.

The first train ran into Panama on January 28th,
1855. Since that date railway enterprise has made
some progress and a new line has been constructed,
which will take the place of the old railway
when the Canal is open. Most of the freight
is now hauled across the Isthmus by night.
The freight traffic is generally heaviest during
January and February, when the coffee crops of
Ecuador and Central America are ''moving."

PANAMA 95

The original cost of the Panama Railroad was
eight million dollars. It is now the property of
the United States Government.

For some years a general condition of public
insecurity prevailed in Panama, civil war and
outlawry being the rule rather than the exception.
One party in the state wanted annexation to
Great Britain, but this was over-ruled. Since the
separation from Spain Panama had belonged to
the "Granadine Confederation," but in 1857 New
Granada conferred on the Isthmus the style of
** State of Panama," and she then joined the
Colombian Federation. This, however, was not
permanent. The most sanguinary war in the
annals of the Isthmus was waged in 1900-1902.
The expulsion of the Jesuits and the confiscation
of clerical property by the Liberals had naturally
aroused the enmity of the other political party
in Panama, the Conservatives or Clericals. The
President, Sanclemente, was deposed in 1899, and,
in the civil war that ensued, the city of Panama
was bombarded for seventy-two hours, and the
gunboat Lautaro sunk in the bay with General
Carlos Alban and many seamen. Thanks largely
to the good offices of the Archbishop of Bogota
peace was concluded between the Government
and the malcontent Liberals in November, 1902.
Internecine strife continued for another twelve
months ; matters became so serious that several
United States warships were sent, and on Novem-
ber 4th, 1903, the Republic of Panama declared

96

THE TEN REPUBLICS

its separation from Colombia in a manifesto which
concluded thus : *' In separating from our brothers
of Colombia we do so without hatred and without
joy. Just as a son withdraws from his paternal
roof, the Isthmian people, in adopting the lot

THE WORLD S CROSS-ROADS

they have chosen, have done so with grief but In
compliance with the supreme and inevitable duty
they owe to themselves, and that of their welfare.
We, therefore, begin to form a party among the
free nations of the world, considering Colombia
as a sister nation. ..."

PANAMA 97

We turn now to a consideration of the greatest
engineering feat of this age, a work that atones
for much of the misery that this little country has
suffered and has inflicted on itself in the past — the
Panama Canal. It is confidently anticipated that
the Isthmian Canal will be in working order by
New Year's day of 191 5.

In all great enterprises it is the pioneers who
suffer — that is the price paid for civilizing in-
fluences. The titanic task of linking the Atlantic
and Pacific Oceans has been no exception to this
rule. It was the brain of Ferdinand de Lesseps,
the great Frenchman whose genius gave us the
Suez Canal, that finally (1878-81) evolved the
idea of a sea-level canal through the Isthmus.
A French Company was formed, and for several
years it worked on this scheme, only to meet with
financial failure after the expenditure oi fifty -two
millions sterling. What was to be done then ?
As it happened, this shortage of money supplies
when the carrying-out of the colossal scheme had
proceeded for some years ultimately produced a
determination, which was carried out, to sell the
scheme outright to the Government of the United
States, and the subsequent swift-moving course
of events may best be shown by setting out the
following dates : —

November 6th, 1903. New Republic of
Panama recognized by United States
of America.

H

98 THE TEN REPUBLICS

November i8th, 1903. Canal Treaty signed

at Washington.

December 2nd, 1903. Ratified by Panama.

February 26th, 1904. Treaty proclaimed.

This agreement — which incidentally ordained
that the Government of the United States pledged
itself to maintain the autonomy of Panama — placed
the United States Government in possession of
the 286,720 acres of land constituting the ''Canal
Zone," the consideration being an indemnity of
;^2, 000,000, with an additional ^8,000,000 for all
the concessions and property of the French
Company. Various preliminaries, conferences,
plans, and the thousand details inseparable from
so vast an undertaking, occupied the next two
years. But on June 29th, 1906, Congress formally
authorized the beginning of the Canal.

It was decided that a lock-canal was preferable
to M. de Lesseps' plans for a sea-level canal, and
these locks are of necessity the largest in the
world. It should be realized that the Isthmus
runs in an easterly direction, and the Canal is
about fifty miles in length frorn sea to sea. Its
entrance on the Atlantic side is near Colon, and,
on the Pacific side, in the vicinity of Panama.
The world's largest vessels will be able to pass
through the Canal in fifteen hours. The whole
belt of land covered by the Canal Zone comprises
44S square miles.

Beginning in deep water, the north (Atlantic)

PANAMA 99

end of the Canal runs about seven miles at sea-
level southwards to the Great Gatun Dam and its
three locks — the greatest the world has ever seen,
and a triumph of marine engineering. These
three locks raise the water-level to a height of
85 feet, and, four miles farther on, the Canal turns
south-easterly in its course to the Pacific side.
Owing to the soft character of the subsoil the con-
struction of this giant Dam proved one of much
difficulty and some danger. In shape it is as
remarkable as in size, which is due to the con-
ditions of the level. Thus, while it has the
moderate height of 115 feet at the crest, the diffi-
culty of its treacherous foundations has been met
by spreading the base of the Dam to the stupendous
width of 2000 feet. In length the Gatun Dam is
nine thousand feet. Its construction has resulted
in the formation of a huge lake, through which
the great water-way is carried in a line along the
course of the Chagres River, which disappears
into the lake. The work of the Dam floods the
Chagres Valley to the sea-level height of 85 feet,
transforming a rapid and turbulent river into a
lake 164 square miles in area, for which an annual
rainfall of 100 inches maintains an ample water
supply.

The Gatun locks are in duplicate and are
1000 feet in length. A 300 -feet wide '^ spill-
way" at the farther end of the Dam gets rid of
the surplus water of the Lake at the rate of
140,000 cubic feet per second. It is important to

loo THE TEN REPUBLICS

remember, despite contradictory statements, that
the tide-levels of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans
are substantially the same.

Some thirty miles from Gatun, at the south end
of the Lake, at Pedro Miguel, is a twin-lock, and
two miles farther, at the south end of Lake Mira-
flores, are a pair of locks, after which the Canal
drops to sea-level again. To those who have
passed through the Suez Canal with its great
lakes, it will come as a surprise — considering the
natural difficulties — that, for thirty-two out of the
fifty miles of the Panama waterway, little cutting or
dredging was required. This is due to the forma-
tion of the Gatun Lake, where the splendid width
of looo feet will enable the biggest steamships to
proceed at *' full speed ahead."

From the thirty-first to the fortieth mile of the
Canal line, it was found necessary to cross the
Cordilleras range. This excavation of the moun-
tain soil for nine miles begins at Gamboa and
ends at Pedro Miguel, where is the great
" Culebra Cut," the world's biggest cutting.
The material is not really difficult to excavate,
being largely argillaceous sandstone with layers
of soft conglomerate, and the serious trouble has
been, not the mere removal of many million cubic
yards of soil, but the danger of earth "slides,"
due to the glacier-like movement of soft sub-
stances on the slippery clay. The striking example
of this is the great '^Cucharaca Slide," south of
Gold Hill, half a mile long, and covering twenty-

io2 TFiE TEN REPUBLICS

seven acres, with its 700,000 cubic yards of soil
in motion at the rate of 14 feet in twenty-four
hours.

The Panama Canal will have a minimum depth
of 41 feet, and a width ranging from 300 to 1000
feet, except in the locks. It has involved for ten
years the labour of 20,000 to 40,000 men, aided
by the newest and heaviest modern appliances
and plant. By January ist, 1915, it will have
cost at least ^60,000,000 over and above the ten
millions paid for the French and Colombian
rights in the original scheme. The whole of
the 40,000 workers on the Canal, together with
their wives and families, are housed and fed at
the cost and under the direct supervision of the
Government of the United States, whose medical
officers attend free of charge all cases of illness,
accidents, etc. The United States Government
owns and manages the hotels, looks after the
amusements, and practically regulates the lives
of all its employees.

This brings us to the consideration of health
conditions on the Isthmus, once the most pesti-
ferous and miasmic of the world's centres. The
terrible toll taken by "Yellow Jack" during the
working of M. de Lesseps' French Company
could not possibly be exaggerated. The Canal
Zone was then an absolute plague centre, but
under the wise and prudent regime inaugurated
by Colonel Gorgas, Chief Sanitary Officer, ap-
pointed by the United States Government, all

PANAMA 103

that has changed. Colonel Gorgas and his coad-
jutors set themselves to the task of stamping out
the two varieties of mosquito that convey the
germs of yellow fever and malaria. Furthermore,
the streets of Colon and Panama have been paved
with impervious materials, and the towns provided
with waterworks and sanitary systems. The good
effects of the American '* occupation " were im-
mediate. The last case of yellow fever reported
in Panama occurred in November, 1905, and
before the close of 1906 the dread disease had
vanished from Colon.

In 1909 the death-rate for 12,300 white workers
on the Isthmus was only 11*9 per thousand as
compared with 15*3 in the previous year ; whilst
in a negro population of 32,000 the rate of 19*4
per thousand in 1908 had fallen to 11 "9 in 1909.
As the outcome of these efforts Panama has be-
come in a few years a healthy locality, where
white people from Europe and North America
may live in absolute safety and security, where
vigorous children may be reared and brought up,
and where life may be enjoyed unmindful of
" climatic " fears.

A word must be said of the excellent organiza-
tion of the present work on the Canal. America's
leading engineering experts, who were visiting
the Canal Zone when the writer was there last
November, assert that it is being handled with
skill and judgment fully equal to that displayed
in the greatest industrial enterprises of the United

104 THE TEN REPUBLICS

States. The devotion of every officer of the staff
to his chief, and the healthy rivalry exhibited in
pushing forward the work in all possible ways,
are the happiest auguries. We have it on the
authority of that indefatigable worker and organ-
izer, Colonel G. W. Goethals (Chief Engineer of
the Panama) that the Canal will be ready a twelve-
month before the allotted time. Thus will ample
opportunity be afforded of testing fully the various
machinery and the methods of operating the vast
locks.

The revolution effected in sea-going trade by the
Suez Canal is destined to be repeated, but in this
case the benefit will be to the United States and
not to Great Britain. Not merely will New York be
several thousand miles nearer to the Panama
Canal than England (whereby the commerce of
the South American Republics will be turned to
the advantage of New York by something like
2,500 miles), but the trade of Japan will be largely
diverted. England has at present an advantage
of over 2000 miles to Yokohama, an advantage
which entirely disappears as soon as the Canal is
open. And Melbourne will be upward of 500
miles nearer to New York than is the case to-day,
while Hongkong will be 350 miles closer.

These are the commercial advantages to America.
What are the strategic? As long ago as the days
of President Grant, "an American canal American-
controlled " was his dictum. Then came Presi-
dent Roosevelt, with his pronouncement that the

PANAMA 105

Panama water-way ''will for defensive purposes
double the power of the United States Navy. (For
offensive purposes also? What would not the
Panama Canal have been to America in her war
with Spain in 1897-8?) And again, speaking at
Omaha in September, 1908; ''We are in honour
bound to fortify the Canal ourselves, for only by
so doing can we effectively guarantee its neutrality
and, moreover, effectively guarantee that it shall
not be used against us." Mr. Taft is not less
emphatic, and, in drawing the attention of Con-
gress to this necessity, he pointed out that by the
Hay-Paunceforte Treaty, America was under an
obligation to Great Britain to fortify the Canal.
Congress has now voted the necessary appropria-
tion for the fortification of the Canal. It may be
well to print side by side the opinions on this
question of an American and of a British naval
authority :

Admiral Mahan, Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge.

When pierced by a The real position of the

Canal the Isthmus will United States will be but

present a maritime centre little altered when the

analogous to the mouth Canal is ready for use. . . .

of the Mississippi. They It is difficult to see what

will differ in this, that military justification there

in the latter case the con- could be for providing the

verging water-routes on Canal with great and

one side are interior to heavily armed defence

a great state whose re- works. Such works could

sources they bear, where- be of use only against a

io6

THE TEN REPUBLICS

as the roads on which
either side converge on
the Isthmus lie wholly
upon the ocean, the com-
mon possession of all na-
tions. The control of the
latter, therefore, rests
either upon local control
of its approaches or upon
a distinctly preponderat-
ing navy. In naval ques-
tions the latter is always
the dominant factor, ex-
actly as on land the mo-
bile army — the army in
the field — must dominate
the question of fortresses
unless war is to be im-
potent . . ., the mouth
of the Mississippi and
the Panama Canal are
the two supreme cen-
tres of commercial and
therefore of political and
military interest. {Sea
Power. )

strong fleet. ... As long
as the United States navy
has command of the neigh-
bouring sea, invasion m.ay
be left out of consideration.
The raid is a much more
probable danger ; and as,
against the Panamd Canal,
raids need not come by sea,
the best, indeed the only
effective defence against
them is that which can be
furnished by a body of
well-equipped defenders.
These may have the sup-
port of simple defence
works having a moderate
gun armament, but what
will be immensely more im-
portant to the security of
the Canal than any forts or
batteries will be the garri-
son ; and the numerical
strength of that garrison
— which may have to ward
off attacks on both sides
— is not likely to be small.

Directly the Canal is opened we may count on
an impetus to the carrying trade between America
and the Australian Colonies and New Zealand.
Australia now gets about ii| per cent, of her
imports (representing ;{^6,ooo,ooo) from the States
direct, and perhaps ;^i, 000,000 by indirect routes,

PANAMA 107

chiefly through Great Britain. This latter trade
we may expect to see disappear with Australia
brought much nearer to America. A somewhat
similar remark applies to the ports of New
Zealand, where some i^i, 500,000 of imports come
from America annually. Again, with regard to
the commercial activities of Japan, that country's
imports of raw cotton can, as soon as the Canal is
ready, be shipped from the Mexican Gulf ports
instead of from New York, the reduction in time
and in freights being of course considerable.
Japan is, in fact, going to be the country of
all countries to benefit, or so it would appear.
The Island Empire is making satisfactory strides
as one of the important manufacturing countries,
and her ability to develop her commercial facilities
is unquestioned. For a long while to come the
British trade with Japan in woollen goods will be
well maintained, but British exports of iron to
this quarter have suffered of late years.

To Canada, too, the opening up of the Pacific
coast will be of importance. Between the Grand
Trunk Pacific Railway, with its terminus on the
Pacific coast, and the Panama Canal the fortunes
of the Dominion will be brighter than ever before.
The Pacific coast of the United States will similarly
be brought nearer to Europe. The produce and
products of California will be placed upon the
European markets more quickly and economically
than at present, but, on the other hand, the
British export trade to western Canada and the

io8 THE TEN REPUBLICS

Pacific States of the American Union will also
be invigorated. The sea route between New
York and the Pacific ports south of the Panama
will be lessened by the Canal by from loao to
8400 miles, and the saving from Liverpool will
be from 2600 to 6000 miles.

In 1904 the Canal Zone was divided into five
*' municipal districts," which existed until 1907,
when the four " administrative districts " of Ancon,
Empire, Gorgona and Cristobal took their place.
The governing Commission of the Zone grants
all liquor licences, and the establishment of saloons
is only permitted at certain points. The cost of a
licence is twelve hundred dollars United States
currency, and there are less than forty saloons
within the Zone's limits. The Zone police num-
ber 200 officers and men.

Panama as a whole covers an area of 32,000
square miles, being about half the size of Uru-
guay. It is almost entirely surrounded by sea,
possessing a land frontier of only 350 miles as
compared with a coast-line of 1245 miles, i.e.
767 miles on the Pacific and 478 miles on the
Caribbean Sea. Thanks largely, of course, to
the influx of immigrants due to work on the
Canal, the population of Panama (including the
''Zone," but excluding an Indian population of
80,000) has risen from 311,000 in 1904 to nearly
half a million to-day. Of this population Panama
City has 40,000, Colon 15,000, David 12,000, and
Bocas del Toro (an Atlantic port) some 10,000.

PANAMA

[09

Sefior Don Pablo Arosemena was elected
President in 1910. When in Panama, the writer
was granted an audience by President Arosemena,
and found him a man of exceptional ability and
extremely anxious to give the youngest Republic
of Latin America an efficient government. He was
particularly proud of the fact that his country was
free from debt and that there were several millions
of dollars in the State Treasury. He is determined
to rule the country economically, and impresses
one as a man of character who will not easily be
swayed from the path of duty. He thus described
the condition of the country to the writer : —

''We do not owe a cent. We pay on sight.
We have $6,000,000 (i^i, 200,000) deposited in
New York Banks, drawing 4^ per cent ; and
$1,000,000 in cash deposited in banks at Panama,
of which the sum of $300,000 is to secure the silver
currency. We have no paper money. The
Government is honestly and economically con-
ducted, and does not spend a dollar without
careful consideration."

The President is elected for four years, and is not
eligible for a second term. He appoints all the
higher officials in the State, and, in the event of his
death or disability, executive powers devolve on
three persons styled "Designadores." TheGovern-
ment is a single -chamber one. The National
Assembly is elected in the proportion of one
Deputy to every 10,000 inhabitants. The Presi-
dent's salary is $18,000, and he is empowered to veto
any measure without reference to the Assembly.

no THE TEN REPUBLICS

Panama, as we have seen, has no national debt.
In this she is not only at a great advantage as
compared with some other South American
countries, but with the opening of the Canal, it
is hoped, she will find herself in a sound finan-
cial position. Conditions of life and progress on
the Isthmus are upon the whole favourable. If
the moral standard is generally not too high, we
have to remember that Panama is only now slowly
and painfully emerging from long periods of civil
war and defective moral conditions. Religious
toleration is granted, and under the wise control
of Sefior Melchior Lasso de la Vega the Depart-
ment of Public Instruction has accomplished effi-
cient work. In the capital there are Normal Schools
for girls and for young men, a National College
of Language and Commerce, a School of Arts
and Crafts, a National School of Music and
Declamation, and an institution for the education
of San Bias Indian boys. The number of illiter-
ate Panamanians is small ; nearly all the popula-
tion being able to read and write. There is no
standing army.

Such is the Panama of 19 ii — a virile nation
inhabiting a, country rich in resources, full of
hope for the future, resolute in the knowledge
that their great Canal enchains the attention of
the whole commercial and scientific world, and
determined to win the race for intellectual and
industrial advancement.

CHAPTER V

THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC

*' No country known to me," wrote the late
Major Martin Hume, '' impresses upon a visitor
from Europe so forcibly as the Argentine the
unlimited possibilities of its soil. Travelling
hour after hour by a railway straight as a
line over gently undulating or perfectly flat
plains, stretching on all sides as far as the
eye can reach, the observer is struck by the
regular ripple of the rich grass, like the waves of
the sea, as the wind blows over it. Here and
there little clumps of eucalyptus slightly break
the monotony of the landscape, and a gleam of a
bright green alfalfa field occasionally relieves the
eye. Far away at rare intervals gleaming white
walls and turrets surrounded by eucalyptus groves
mark the position of an 'estancia,' and innumer-
able herds of cattle, sheep, and almost wild troops
of horses everywhere testify to the richness of the
pasture."

Major Hume's attractive picture of the third
largest of the South American Republics is not
exaggerated. Argentine is one of the rising
countries of the New World. In 1883 the three

III

112 THE TEN REPUBLICS

principal articles exported from Argentina to the
United Kingdom were officially described as
^' skins, bones, and untanned hides," valued at
^^400,000. Last year the total value of her sales
to Great Britain was roughly ^16,000,000, and of
her purchases ^20,000,000, while the value of her
total trade with all the world was i^ 145, 000, 000.
In 1909 nearly 3,000,000 tons of wheat were
exported from Argentina, and last year seventy-
two per cent of the frozen and chilled meat
imported into England came from the rich fields
of this young giant among nations. That Great
Britain has poured forth a steady stream of gold
into this country for the development of these
food-producing areas of the New World is only a
natural result of the struggle for new sources of
food supplies alluded to in a previous chapter.

Argentina's boundaries consist of the Atlantic
Ocean and the Republics of Chile, Brazil, Bolivia,
Uruguay and Paraguay. It has an extent of
1,135,840 square miles, equal to about two-fifths of
the whole area of the United States. The popu-
lation of Argentina (191 1) may be estimated at
seven million souls, or about six persons per square
mile, as compared with nearly thirty persons per
square mile in the United States. The Argentine
Census is lacking in the most fundamental of
social statistics, the returns of the population.
Official reports provide with extreme accuracy an
enumeration of the cattle, horses, sheep, asses,
mules, swine, goats, ostriches, ducks, geese,

NaUroads in Operation.
" under Construction
Scales

I S3B=d Milei

200 *O0 6PO

Kilometres

114 THE TEN REPUBLICS

cocks, hens, chickens and pigeons, yet though
sex and age are fully detailed for the poultry enthu-
siast, no such classification nor that of nation-
ality or condition is available with regard to the
enumeration of the Argentine people. It is to be
hoped that the next Census of the Republic will
remedy this, and that we shall have an enumera-
tion of the people with age, sex, nationality and
occupation, and other information necessary for
a thorough study of the movement of the popula-
tion.

The climate may not unfairly be classed as one
of infinite variety, going from tropical in the north
to arctic in the south, but lying mainly in the
temperate zone.

The main intention in this chapter being to
present a picture of commercial, agricultural,
social, economic and political Argentina of to-day
and of its future development, the briefest of
historical sketches must suffice.

Subsequent to the discovery of the river La
Plata in 1508 and the foundation of Buenos Aires
in 1536 by Mendoza, the struggle was for a long
period between the Spanish adventurers and the
Indians — not the Aztec and Inca races as in
Mexico and Peru, but a hardy and nomadic people
who for years offered a tenacious resistance to the
invader. The first settlement of Buenos Aires was
burned and sacked by them, but they were gradu-
ally pushed farther into the interior, and in 1576
Juan de Garay, as Viceroy, renewed a determined

THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC 115

effort to ''colonize." In 1776, the year of North
American Independence, the country was con-
sidered powerful enough by its Spanish overlords
to become a separate Viceroyalty, but in 1810 the
war for South American independence began, and
the Spaniards were defeated and expelled in 1814.
On July 9th, 1816, a Constitutional Assembly at
Tucuman proclaimed the autonomy of the United
Provinces of the Plata River (" Provincias Unidas
del Rio de la Plata"), and in 1824 the more demo-
cratic regime of a President of the Republic took
the place of the first instituted Supreme Dictator-
ship. About Christmas 1825 a war broke out
with Brazil in consequence of her attitude towards
Uruguay, who had recently seceded from the
Argentine Confederation. This trouble was settled
by a treaty of peace signed in February, 1827,
which provided for the independence of Uru-
guay.

From 1829 Argentina was ruled for more than
twenty years by the reactionary Rosas.

Among its modern rulers, Celman had to be
deposed after bringing his country to financial
ruin. Don Manuel Quintana, who became Presi-
dent in 1904, died in 1906 before his term of
power had expired. The Vice-President, Dr.
Jose Figueroa Alcorta, filled the gap until
October, 1910 (the term of office being, not as in
other South American Republics, for six instead
of four years), when the present President, Dr.
Roque Saenz Peiia, was elected.

lib THE TEN REPUBLICS

The Constitution of the Argentine Nation, the
title by which the country is now known, was pro-
mulgated on May Day, 1853, and took the Federal
Union of States as its pattern. This form is
identical with that of the Constitutions of four
other Western nations, viz. the United States of
America, Mexico, Brazil and Venezuela.

It vests the legislative power in a two-chamber
National Congress and the executive power in
the hands of a President assisted by a
Cabinet.

The *' Supreme Court" of Argentina is a
tribunal of five judges, after which there are four
Courts of Appeal (each of three judges) and
Courts of '* First Instance." Each province has
its own judiciary.

The Republic is politically divided into fourteen
provinces, and one Federal District (Buenos
Aires, the capital). The fourteen provinces are
practically self-governing as regards their internal
administration. The ten territories are ruled by
a Governor, who is appointed by the President.
The Federal District is under the superintend-
ence of a Mayor {intendente) and a Municipal
Council.

The populations of the half-dozen leading cities
may be thus roughly summarized : Buenos Aires,
1,320,000; La Plata (the capital of Buenos Aires
province), 80,000 ; Cordoba, 60,000 ; Tucuman,
55,000; Rosario, 180,000; Santa Fe, 33,000;
Parana, 30,000; Mendoza, 51,000; Bahia Blanca,

THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC 117

37,000; and Corrientes, 20,000. The three biggest
centres of the sea-going trade are Buenos Aires,
Bahia Blanca and Rosario.

As usual with these new countries, the demand
of Argentina is for more people. It has been
said, indeed, that but for immigration the popu-
lation would be in danger of not increasing. The
figures on the point are certainly instructive.
The birth-rate among the Italian residents is very
considerably higher than that among the other
colonists, as the following birth-rates per thousand
for 1904 show: Italians, 175; Spaniards, 123;
Germans, 96 ; Uruguayans, 93 ; English, 92 ;
Argentines, 85 ; and French 74.

Argentina is Italy's finest colony ; of the
1,750,000 foreigners (more than one-third of the
total population) in the Republic in 1909, 843,540
were Italians, while 424,085 were Spaniards,
104,990 French, and the rest English, Swiss,
Germans, Austrians and other nationalities.

It will be seen that the preponderance of the
Italian and Spanish colonists is quite startling,
and it is being well maintained. The French are
declining in numbers. The rate of European
immigration has risen from some 4000 in 1857 to
a quarter of a million in 1908, while the following
recent figures show that the number of immigrants
has doubled itself within five years: 1904, 125,567;
I905) i77>ii7; 1906, 252,536; 1907, 209,103;
1908, 255,710.

Argentina spends more money on educating

ii8 THE TEN REPUBLICS

her children than any country save Australia.
Primary education is secular, and is free and com-
pulsory for children from six to fourteen years
old. The children of the wealthy are frequently
sent to be educated in EuropCc In 1910 there
were 6371 primary schools (public and private)
with 659,460 pupils. Between 1885 and 1904 the
children of school-going age attending schools
increased from 25 to 45 per cent, of whom only a
fraction could read or write. As for secondary
education (not compulsory) there are twenty-six
national colleges maintained by the Government
with some five thousand pupils, and nearly double
that number of normal schools. There are Uni-
versities at Buenos Aires, Cordoba, La Plata,
Santa Fe and Parana.

The capital has its ''National School of Com-
merce," which is doing admirable work in the
education of accountants, translators, etc. Other
state-aided colleges of commerce are at Cordoba
and Bahia Blanca. There is a "School of
Mines " at San Juan, an Agrarian and Veterinary
School at Santa Catalina, a National School for
Pilots, and the Viticultural School at Mendoza.
Every year a number of scholars from each of the
provinces are sent abroad at Government expense
to complete their studies.

An institution which does the State great credit
is the finely-equipped Industrial School in Buenos
Aires. Here are taught trades and crafts of every
description, special attention being given to those

THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC 119

occupations upon which the industrial future of
the country would seem to depend. There are
also National Museums of Fine Arts, of History,
and of Natural History, as well as the National
Conservatoire of Music and School of Drawing.
Agricultural Stations are maintained at San Juan,
Bella Vista, Tucuman, and Terna.

Argentina is a country of conscription. Every
Argentine subject from the age of twenty-one is
liable for naval or military service — ostensibly
for two years and one year respectively, but in
practice these periods are materially lessened,
owing to exceptions in favour of those who have
attended shooting ranges and obtained classifica-
tions as good shots, which number, thanks to
the systematic military training provided and
encouraged by educational and municipal authori-
ties, is very considerable. The gauchos of the
plains especially, and indeed most Argentines, are
good horsemen, so that their period of training
for the cavalry branch is much shorter than would
be the case in Europe.

This system of conscription affords about 15,000
men annually for regular service, and the regula-
tions governing the transference of these, first to
the ordinary reserve force until the age of thirty,
and afterwards to the *' National Guards," from
whom service in time of war only is required,
provides a force of about 150,000 trained men
for the army and 25,000 for the navy, who can
be called upon for active service. The permanent

i2o The ten republics

army consists roughly of 20,000 men, officers,
and staff attendants. It is noteworthy that the
German principles of military training have been
very largely adopted, both in the conscript system
and in the more specialized training provided in
military colleges and schools for staff and petty
officers. The uniform also is of German pattern.
The infantry weapon is the Mauser rifle and the
artillery arm is the Krupp gun.

With a thousand miles of splendid sea-line on
the Atlantic to protect and no outlet save the
Pacific on the coast of that name, an efficient navy
is even more vital to Argentina than a good army.
But although on the sea, her people cannot be said
to be of it, and in the British sense of the word
they are not a sea-faring race— in fact, despite
her vast overseas trade, Argentina's mercantile
marine does not much exceed a tonnage of
100,000. It follows that her navy does not reach
large dimensions, though recently two battleships
of the Dreadnought type, each of 23,000 tons,
and fifteen destroyers of 850 tons each have been
added to the fleet. At Belgrano— Bahia Blanca
— a naval port has arisen, capable of accommodat-
ing ships of 12,000 tons.

Railway expansion has played a very important
part in the development of the Republic. The
following figures illustrate the distribution of
British capital in Argentina a couple of years
ago, but an estimate made in 191 1 by Mr.
Thomas Brewer, editor of the South American

THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC 121

Journal^ puts the British capital invested at
^294,514,644.

Raihvays . . . 137,845,000

Banks . . . 8,580,000

Tramways . . . 8,010,986

Other Enterprises . . 20,910,580

175.346,566

France came next with railway and harbour
investments totalling up to about ;^ 2 2, 000, 000,
followed by Germany with ;^ 12,000,000, mostly
in banks and trams, and by Belgium with a
modest four millions. Could any figures be more
eloquent of the preponderance of British interests
in this country?

It was in 1854 ^hat Buenos Aires granted the
first railway concession in Argentina. It was for
merely thirteen miles of line running westward
from the capital, and it began working in 1857.
Between that date and 1909 the railway mileage
increased to 16,600 miles, this representing an
average construction of new line at the rate of 319
miles per annum. La Pampa is the territory with
the greatest mileage in railways, and it is esti-
mated that this mileage is likely to be doubled at
no distant date. The total railroad mileage of the
country is, in round figures, 20,000, including
railroads under construction, with an additional
5000 miles projected.

The pioneer of all these lines was the Buenos

122 THE TEN REPUBLICS

Aires Western, and the largest to-day is the
Buenos Aires Southern, formed in 1862. Other
principal great railway companies, most of them
British, are the Central Argentine, Buenos Aires
and Pacific, Argentine Great Western, Cordoba
Central and its Buenos Aires extension, Argentine
North Eastern, Entre Rios and Cordoba and
Rosario. The receipts of all the different railways
in 1909 came to over twenty millions sterling, with
a total of fifty million passengers, and a movement
of nearly thirty-two million tons of goods.

The financial position of the Republic is sound,
though it is generally believed that Congress
ought to be able to produce a more satisfactory
Budget. Its National Debt (external and internal)
amounts to i^88,6oo,ooo, which is a slight decrease
since 1900, but when the present resources of the
country are compared with those of ten years ago
the proportionate burden is not more than half
what it was then. The revenue of the Govern-
ment last year exceeded ^24,000,000. Like the
Public Debts of most of the other Republics it
originated in the necessity, at the close of the long
and exhausting struggle with Spain, for credit to
be obtained for the development of the country's
resources and the maintenance of its political and
financial stability.

The chief feature, as regards finance, of the
Presidential Message of May nth of this year is
the announcement that an external loan of
^12,000,000 will be necessary. The Budget

THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC 123

exceeds last year's by ^6,300,313. Extraordinary
expenses have been in connection with the cen-
tenary celebrations and the partial loss of the
harvests, which necessitates State help to farmers
for the purchase of seeds next year. The imports
for the year now ended were ;^7o, 354,000 and the
exports ;^74,525,200. The Caja de Conversion
holds ;^39, 200,000 gold and the Banco de la
Nacion ;^32, 600,000. There were redeemed
during 1910 external loans to the extent of
;{^i, 100,000. The internal duties produced
i;2,2i5,634.

A change in the form of the currency was fore-
shadowed by the Conversion Law of 1899, whereby
the paper money is convertible at the rate of ^4
centavos gold to the paper peso^ and for this pur-
pose the Conversion Office possessed in March,
1910, a gold reserve of over ^^40,000,000. The
nominal monetary unit is the gold peso of 100
centavos^ worth 47*61 pence, but the actual unit is
the paper peso of 20*952 pence. There is also a
silver peso worth about 17 pence, and 50, 20, 10
and 5 centavos pieces. Nickel coins are of 20, 10
and 5 centavos. The Government deserves great
credit for the sensible way it has dealt with the
currency, and the next step should take the
Argentine to a gold standard.

There are four big Argentine banks having
London offices, viz. the London and River Plate
Bank, the Anglo-South American, the British
Bank of South America, and the London and

124 THE TEN REPUBLICS

Brazilian Bank. The United States does not yet
possess a single banking establishment in South
America, though there has been considerable talk
of establishing one. The bank deposits last
year were over looo million pesos and nearly
i^io,ooo,ooo gold. The banking business is con-
ducted on sound principles and is largely influ-
enced by British methods.

In 1883 the Republic adopted protection, and in
1884 the tariff imposed a duty of 50 per cent on
firearms, powder, alcohol, playing-cards, perfumes,
tobacco, snuff, and wax matches, and of 40 per
cent on hats, clothes, shoes, furniture, carriages
and harness, rockets and wooden matches. As,
on the other hand, many articles essential to the
agricultural and commercial development of the
land were admitted for a nominal tariff, it has
been held to work well. But Senor Pillado, in
his thoughtful study Politico-Commercial Arge7i-
tinUy remarks: "For a number of years Pro-
tection has been a heavy obstacle to the progress
and expansion of our country. Most sincerely do
I declare that we all ought to use our utmost
efforts to reform a financial system grounded on
such fundamental errors as protective tariffs."

Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina,
was a city of some importance even in 1762, though
contemporary accounts and journals emphasized
its unsanitary and sordid condition. All that has
been changed now. The town is situated on the
right bank of the estuary of the river La Plata.

THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC 125

Its magnificent docks, finished in 1900, have
accommodation for twenty million tons of ship-
ping. Works are now in course of construction
for the enlargement of the existing, and the pro-
vision of new, accommodation for an additional
two million tons of shipping. The work includes
four new docks with quays extending for a length
of over 3 miles, and the erection of warehouses
covering 100 acres of floor space at a cost of
i^5, 500,000. The well-known British firm of
Messrs. C. H. Walker and Co. have the contract,
and Messrs. Levesey, Son & Henderson are the
engineers.

The public and other buildings of the city at
once strike the eye. The Exchange is an impres-
sive building, and the Jockey Club has few rivals
anywhere. (Its entrance fee is ;^300.) Horse-
racing is the great national pastime, but the
bookmaker is unknown, though it must not be
concluded from this that betting does not exist.
On the contrary, it is practised to excess, the Jockey
Club itself taking the place of the private book-
maker and issuing betting tickets to the public on
lines similar to those of the French pari-wutuel
system. In fact, betting is so much a part of
national life in Argentina that the sums
wagered on horses and spent in lottery tickets are
recorded in municipal statistics. In 1908 about
;{^8,ooo,ooo represented the open and public gam-
bling in Buenos Aires, the amount of private
wagers and sums exchanged at cards being impos-

126 THE TEN REPUBLICS

sible to estimate. Many wealthy men go in for
breeding racehorses, and it was here that King
Edward the Seventh's celebrated Diamond Jubilee
changed hands for ^^30,000.

Buenos Aires naturally received a great impetus
from the Centennial Exhibition held in 1910— a
group of exhibitions the chief of which were the
Railway and the Agricultural Exhibitions. The
British section of the Railway Exhibition was one
of the finest of the kind ever arranged ; it eclipsed
all the others and did great credit to British rail-
way builders.

The Press of this city deserves special mention.
There are 412 publications in the native language
(Spanish), 22 in Italian, 8 British, 8 French,
8 German, and i Arabic, in addition to those
of several other foreign communities. Palermo
Park and the Zoological Gardens are beautiful
resorts. The theatres and concert halls are of
the most modern description, and the fact that
Madame Melba netted ;^40,ooo from a compara-
tively brief concert tour in South America gives
some idea of the money that South Americans are
willing to spend in this way.

The extent of the development of Argentine
trade may be gathered from a comparison of its
present figures with those of twenty-five years ago.
In 1883 the value of its exports and imports
together amounted to under 25 million sterling,
a sum, it is true, nearly twenty-five times as large
as that of a hundred years previously, but only a

THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC 127

seventh of its amount at the present day, which is
roughly 144^ millions. Such statistics require no
comment and certainly no panegyric. In 1909,
again, the export of agricultural products repre-
sented upwards of 48 millions sterling, of pastoral
products 27 millions, forest products i| millions,
and fish and game i^ioo,ooo. The largest ship-
ment of these details included wheat, maize, lin-
seed, oats, wool, frozen beef and mutton, hides,
and quebracho wood. Argentina is already the
wheat exporting country of the world, and is by
far the world's greatest exporter of linseed. Yet
in 1854 "o^ more than 375,000 acres of this wonder-
ful land was under tillage. Twenty years later,
271,000 acres were being cultivated for wheat
alone, and to day the wheat area is represented by
14 million acres. In 1902 Argentina produced
2,824,000 tons of wheat, of which it exported
543,000 tons. In the cereal year 1908-9 it grew
4,250,000 tons (5-3 per cent of the entire crop of
the world), of which it exported 2,980,000 tons.
Buenos Aires and Rosario are the great wheat
ports, and the former is now feeling the competi-
tion of Bahia Blanca in the south. The following
are the wheat exports of the principal wheat-raising
countries of the world in the year 1908-9 :

Tons. Tons.

Argentina . 2,980,000 Canada. . 1,640,000

United States 2,952,000 Balkan States 1,058,000

Russia . . 2,625,000 Australasia . 1,032,000

India, 754,000 tons.

128 THE TEN REPUBLICS

The republic has come to the fore of late years
as a producer of linseed, the average annual pro-
duction during the years 1905-9 having increased
over 156 per cent, relatively to the average annual
production of the preceding five years and over
300 per cent, relatively to that of the years 1895-9.
Its product of linseed during 1909 was 1,049,000
tons, equal to the amount produced by either
Russia or North America and India together.

Though the production of sugar is large, it
was not sufficient in 1909 to meet the home de-
mand, and a considerable quantity was imported.
Tucuman is the sugar and tobacco region, whilst
Mendoza is responsible to-day for nine-tenths of
the great and growing grape-harvest. The familiar
expression ''wine of the country" is here a very
literal one, and the old-world vineyards and
" bodegas " of Mendoza are a sight worth seeing.
In 1884 only some 63,000 acres were under grape
cultivation, and they produced less than six million
gallons of wine ; in 191 1 the production should cer-
tainly amount to 42,000,000 gallons. While all
sorts of wine are manufactured, the widest popu-
larity is for red and white clarets. The tariff
renders foreign wines far too expensive.

Cattle and sheep rearing, and the production of
frozen and chilled meat, have made great headway,
and the fact that a recent contract has been made
with the Nelson Line for ten new steamers, of
8000 tons each, to be used exclusively for the
shipping of chilled meat, is a sufficient indication

THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC 129

of the extent of this trade. The trade of Argentina
in cattle and sheep, hides and wool is still capable
of great expansion. The business in chilled or
frozen beef and mutton is of more recent growth
than that in wool and hides, which even in the
seventeenth century was quite considerable. To-
day it constitutes one of Argentina's greatest com-
mercial assets, and in 1910 Great Britain derived
72 per cent, of her chilled and frozen meat, not
from her own overseas dominions, but from the
fruitful Argentina.

Times have indeed changed since the days
when animals were killed for their hides only and
the carcases left to rot on the ground. Great
allowance must be made, of course, for the slow
but sure advance in the method of freezing, chill-
ing, and preserving the carcases. By 1895 ^^e
number of cattle on the pampas had increased
to 21,701,506 head, an increase of iij millions
in thirty years. The census of 1909 shows
a further increase to nearly 30,000,000 head.
As illustrating, coincidently, the corresponding
welcome advance of Argentina in kindred spheres
of usefulness (wheat, railways, etc.), the proportion
of cattle to the total wealth of the country fell from
25 per cent, in 1857 to 18 per cent, in 1884. Con-
siderable impetus was given to the business by
the extensive importation of the best blood-stock,
and in 1899-1903 some 3000 bulls were imported,
mainly from England. A great number of the
*'estancias" or ranches are British owned and
K

I30 THE TEN REPUBLICS

conducted. 1 In 1909, 275,930 tons of beef and
mutton were exported. Last year's returns of the
total number of animals in Argentina represented
a gross value of ^60,468,750. The '^ Campo,"
as the vast pampa is locally called, has contributed
more than any other factor to the making of the
Argentine nation of to-day.

In 1909 the export of wool from the Argentine
ports had attained the satisfactory figure of
176,682 tons. The fine quality of this wool is
maintained by judicious but constant experiments
in breeding, as well as by the magnificent quality
of the pampas pasturage.

Some estancias have dairies attached to them,
and the export of butter, of an excellent quality,
has grown from a few hundred pounds in 1891 to
8000 tons last year. Of this export, the United
Kingdom takes 90 per cent.

Several huge meat-extract companies have their
head-quarters in Argentina. The Bovril Company
purchased 438,000 acres and two factories at Santa
Elena and San Javier, and in these factories some
100,000 cattle are slaughtered annually. The
Lemco and Oxo Company was the first to
be established, about 1865. ^'Liebig's Extract"
was eventually absorbed by the Lemco and Oxo
Company, starting in Uruguay, but now owning
ten estancias in Argentina, nine in Paraguay
and seven in Uruguay. The whole area of this

1 *' Of every twenty estancias in the South, fifteen belong- to
Englishmen." — Bernandez, The Argentine Estancia.

THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC

131

immense property exceeds that of Kent and
Surrey together, and one estancia alone is
bigger than the Isle of Wight. From January
to June is the killing season, and in this six
months some 250,000 beasts are slaughtered by
the Lemco-Oxo combine. The table below gives
the history of the Company's expansion in periods
of ten years : —

Acres.

Stock.

1868

28,494 .

12,000 cattle.

1878

37,961 .

• 19,036 ,,

1888

126,984

. 36,685 „

1898

254,133 .

• 66,435 „

1908

1,302,386 .

. 224,406 ,,

I9I0

1,727,720 .

• 274,500 ,,

Turning to home products other than the
pastoral -agricultural, we find that although
manufacturers in Argentina are so heavily pro-
tected progress is, on the whole, slow. The
country has 130 distilleries and 32 breweries
(1910), while rum is freely manufactured at
Tucuman. About eighty factories produce
;^2, 500,000 worth of tobacco annually. Three
years ago, 303 flour mills yielded 700,000 tons
annually, but the high tariff and lack of coal are
handicaps to full expansion. Considerable pro-
duction of textiles also takes place (at two cotton
mills and sixty weaving factories), as well as of
glass-ware, matches, paper, clothing, leather, and
boots and shoes of the cheaper kind, etc.

132 THE TEN REPUBLICS

The total number of factories in the Argentine
Republic in 1909 was 31,996, with a capital of
^19,269,335, and an annual output valued at
;^io8, 282,326. The value of the raw material
employed in these factories during the year was
estimated at ;^63,oi3,238. The employees num-
bered 327,893, and the motive power employed
aggregated 229,692 horse-power. Buenos Aires
has 10,349 factories and 118,315 employees.

In 1908 Argentina had the satisfaction of super-
seding the United States as the premier maize
exporter of the world. The value of this export
last year was over ;^i 2,000,000.

In the matter of imports, England claims the
proportion of 34*2 per cent of the entire trade,
followed by Germany (whose growing enterprise
in South American affairs is noteworthy) with
i3'9, and the United States with 13-2. The
import trade figures of the principal competing
countries in 1910 were : Great Britain, ;^i8,37i, 396 ;
Germany, i^7, 569,415 ; United States, ;^7, 119,400 ;
France, i^5> 295,383 ; Italy, ;^4,982,649 ; Belgium,
^^2,550,674.

Agricultural Argentina has in some sense
been developed and exploited at the expense of
mineral Argentina, though in any case its mineral
product is far inferior to that of other South
American countries. Still, gold, silver, and
copper ore are worked in considerable quantities,
and many believe the workings to be capable of
considerable development. The mining region is

THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC 133

situated mainly under the Andes, and the Mejicana
Mine at Famatina is 16,500 feet above sea-level.

So well wooded are certain areas that the forests
of the **GranChaco" are said to contain sixty
thousand square miles of timber. The forest-
woods include the quebracho, the nandubay
(acacia), lapacho (bignonia), red and white cedar,
amarillo (mimosa), the palm-tree (introduced by
the Jesuits), poplar, willow, walnut, and the cele-
brated j^'^/-^^ mate^ whose leaves make a stimulating
tea. The valuable quebracho (breakaxe) takes
a hundred years to arrive at maturity. It is largely
used in the making of railway sleepers, etc., and
also provides an export trade of about a quarter
of a million tons annually, mainly for tanning
purposes. This wood bears so strong a re-
semblance to red marble that it is a difficult
matter to distinguish between the two.

Argentina's own modest mercantile marine is
represented by about three hundred steam and
sailing ships, having a tonnage of some 100,000
gross. But her score of magnificent harbours,
ranging from the stately docks of Buenos Aires
and Rosario to the more moderate but not less
ambitious ports of Rio Gallegos and Puerto
Madryn, demand separate mention. In 1908,
7,555,574 tons of shipping entered and 7,562,055
cleared from the port of Buenos Aires, while
1,924,808 tons entered and 2,029,596 cleared from
Rosario. But Santa Fe, La Plata, Parana, Cor-
rientes, Goya, Diamante, Bella Vista, and the

134 THE TEN REPUBLICS

splendid growing southern port of Bahia Blanca,
where now enter and clear nearly a million tons
of shipping annually, are also important ports.

Rosario, the second city of the Republic, and
now a place of nearly 200,000 people, is less than
two hundred miles from the capital, which may
be reached under five hours on the Central Argen-
tine Railway. It is the principal wheat, linseed,
and maize port of Argentina. Its situation on
the Parana River is superb, and when Rosario
is linked up — as it will be— by through railway
inter-communication with Brazil, Paraguay, and
Bolivia, and Brazilian coal can be brought into
the country in great quantities, a chief obstacle
to Argentina's complete industrial supremacy will
be swept away.

The city of Santa Fe, capital of the province
of that name, does the greatest export trade in
quebracho wood, approximating to 200,000 tons
annually. It, too, is on the Parana, whose won-
derful ''Falls of Iguazu," the Niagara of South
America, are not far away.

The ''Gran Chaco," the northern division of
the country, is singularly interesting. It is the
home of the native Indian tribes, and, in sharp
contrast to the Mendozan area, its climate is
tropical. Its fauna includes the jaguar, the puma,
wild cat, fox, tapir, many varieties of deer, and
the alligator. The north is marshy, the south
covered with dense forests. The capital of the
Chaco is Resistencia.

THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC 135

The most interesting spot in the country is
Cordoba, founded in 1573. It has the oldest
University in South America except Lima — estab-
lished by the Jesuits in 1613. Then there is
Tucuman, on the River Sali. It already has
50,000 inhabitants, and as its growing sugar and
tobacco industries develop it is certain to become
a most important centre.

Bahia Blanca, the future great competing wheat
port of the south, did not obtain railway facilities at
all until 1885, but nowadays the healthy competi-
tion of two big lines — the Great Southern and
the Bahia Blanca and North- Western worked by
the Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway — is most
beneficial to the town. It has also become a big
naval port, docks to receive the biggest battleships
having been constructed under the direction of
the famous Italian engineer, the Chevalier Luigi.

It is believed that Patagonia will develop ex-
tensively. Its lakes and harbours are good, and
its pastures admirable. Sheep farming is develop-
ing, and there is an extensive trade in salt and
fruit.

British trade with Argentina, in spite of its
progress of recent years (the total amounting in
1909 to fifty-one millions sterling, and showing an
increase of nearly 300 per cent relative to its
amount ten years previously), is still a subject for
criticism with regard to its practical conduct and
the consequent effect upon its volume. It is urged
by an Argentine correspondent to The Times in

136 THE TEN REPUBLICS

January of this year— and his complaints recall
strictures that Consular reports have made familiar
to us for many years past — that apathy and lack
of business aptitude on the part of British mer-
chants are more noticeable in their business
relations with Argentina than with any other
country. The demand for British goods by the
Argentines, wrote this correspondent, is so eager
that even the inconvenience and vexation that
ensue from the English manufacturers' indifference
to their own interests and disregard of opportuni-
ties have not, as yet, diverted the demand to other
countries, though naturally the facilities and trade
courtesies which are not forthcoming from English
firms, and which do characterize the dealing of
German and American manufacturers with Argen-
tine business houses, have secured for the latter
a considerable share of the trade which might
otherwise have been held by Englishmen.

There is, no doubt, truth in the statement that
some branches of South American trade are not
conducted with that sense of commercial rectitude
that invites the confidence of British merchants,
but to place all responsibility for the conditions de-
plored by the Argentine correspondent to The Times
upon this fact would but be to argue ignorance of
many details of the situation and associate our-
selves with cant phrases. As The Times justly
said in a leading article commenting upon the
letter referred to, "It is not in this case a question
of fools and angels — merchants of other nations

THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC 137

are not all fools nor are British merchants all
angels. We do well to eschew corrupt practices,
but, even so, there is plenty of room for improve-
ment in our methods of doing business."

Meanwhile Argentina progresses by leaps and
bounds, a land of plenty for all but the naturally
inept and incapable. Its people are frankly and
entirely occupied in the pursuit or the enjoyment
of wealth, caring but little how they are governed
and regarding politics with indifference, so long
as it rains. Drought they fear with reason, for it
strews their vast pasture-lands with the carcases
of starved cattle, and of the visitations of locusts
they have had bitter experience. But the rain
comes at last, and soon the wonderful soil puts
forth rich provender for the survivors of the herds,
and restores the herbage stripped by the flying
blight. Losses are quickly covered by new gains,
for what nature takes away is but little compared
to what she gives back ; and before long the reser-
voirs and the extensive scheme of irrigation which
the Argentine Government, in combination with
the railways, has wisely inaugurated, will greatly
reduce the unavoidable damage to crops. The
national prosperity rests on the surest of founda-
tions, since an inexhaustible source supplies its
constituents, and for these, the prime necessity of
mankind, the demand can never even waver, so
that in summing up Argentina's prospects of future
material welfare the slightest tinge of pessimism
would appear to be inadmissible.

CHAPTER VI

BOLIVIA

In the days of Spanish dominion that part of
South America now known as Bolivia was ''the
pride of Spain" and the ''envy of the rest of
Europe." From the rich silver mountains of
Potosi untold wealth was carried on the backs
of Indians or of llamas over the Andes to Arica
and thence in the "silver ships" to Panama.
Potosi, which could then boast of 150,000 in-
habitants, sixty churches, many costly public
buildings and a great mint, has now a rather
melancholy and dilapidated air. The mint,
constructed of timber dragged from Oran in
Argentina, stands to this day, sprawling over two
city blocks. Many of the churches still survive
in a less perfect state of preservation, and the
twenty-two artificial lakes, constructed in 162 1
on the heights which dominate the city, give
evidence of the number and importance of the
workings to which it was their purpose to supply
water ; but of the almost fabulous wealth and
the fame which was Potosi's, little remains but
the memory. Yet though the ancient glories of
their city have departed, the citizens of Potosi
seem keenly alive to its future possibilities, and

138

BOLIVIA

139

are looking forward to the completion of the
new railway which will connect the town with
the main Bolivian railways and open their mineral

resources to the world. Bolivia, like her most
famous city, perhaps, finds more satisfaction
in the contemplation of what the future has in
store for her than in brooding over the past.
For nearly a generation Bolivia has encountered

F40 THE TEN REPUBLICS

hard luck. Strife with her neighbour Republics
over questions of boundaries, frequent internal
dissensions interspersed with periods of corrupt
and incapable administration, these are but a
portion of the chronicle of her perplexities. In
the ill-advised war with Chile, Bolivia lost her
only maritime province, and is now a land-locked
nation with the single consolation that she is
unconcerned in the naval rivalry that has suddenly
overtaken at least three of her neighbours. Chile
has granted her the use in perpetuity of two sea-
ports. Great Britain has resumed diplomatic
relations with La Paz. The several boundary
questions have apparently been settled or are on
the way towards settlement, and Bolivia has
emerged with a loss of territory which she could
easily spare and a gain of two million sovereigns
which she greatly needed. Commerce has re-
ceived an impetus, her markets are extending,
and foreign capital is beginning to venture into
the country. An honest, capable Government has
helped to bring about these more satisfactory con-
ditions. The indemnity received from Brazil has
been scrupulously put to the useful purpose of
building a system of railways which, when com-
pleted, will link together the important cities.
The undertaking is in the hands of a reputable
British company, and the writer, having inspected
all the completed lines, can vouch for the integrity
of the work. With the opening of the railways
now in course of construction in Bolivia and the

BOLIVIA 141

completion of the joint Chile-Bolivia railway from
Arica to La Paz, the principal city of Bolivia will
be supplied on all sides with railways. La Paz
will not only have three direct railway outlets to
the Pacific coast— those via Antofagasta, Arica
and Mollendo respectively — but a line extending
to a point on the river Beni from which free
navigation is possible into the Amazon and its
innumerable navigable tributaries.

Yet another important line is that which will
leave the main track of the Antofagasta-Bolivia
Railway at Uyuni, go thence to Tupiza and con-
nect with one of the greatest and most remarkable
railway systems in the world, that of Argentina.
The Arica-La Paz Railway is to be inaugurated this
year, on the 6th of August, Bolivia's Independence
Day, in the presence of the Presidents of the two
countries. The event should strengthen the
friendly relations of Chile and Bolivia and, as
did the interchange of visits last year between
the Presidents of Chile and Argentina, help to
establish permanent mutual goodwill between the
two Republics.

There are indications that the luck of Bolivia has
changed, and her prospects seem full of promise.

In point of area Bolivia comes third to Brazil
and Argentina, with 700,000 square miles of the
most varied territory in South America. In the
north-west are hot lowlands, hydrographic basins
whose rivers, navigable for long distances, fertilize
vast meadows into abundant vegetation ; in the

142 THE TEN REPUBLICS

east are rolling grass plains and almost impene-
trable forest-lands intersected by broad rivers
which overflow their low banks and spread into
swamps. In the west a massive double range of
the great Andes encloses a high plateau 520 miles
in length, with an average breadth of nearly eighty
miles — a bleak and windy plain, 12,000 feet above
sea-level — where the scanty vegetation grows with
difficulty and the few streams that descend from
the surrounding summits either feed a vast morass
or flow into two great lakes. In the southern
portion of this plateau are flat, arid deserts
covered with deposits of salt. The territory in
the south-west of Bolivia consists of volcanic
ranges to the east and sandy plains to the west,
where a few feeble streams form at long intervals
welcome oases.

Bolivia is bounded on the north and north-east
by Brazil, west by Peru and Chile, south by
Argentina, and south-east by Paraguay. The
territory is divided into the departa7nentos of La
Paz and El Beni in the north ; Oruro in the west,
Cochabamba in the centre and Santa Cruz in the
east ; Potosi, south of Oruro, Chuquisaca, south
of Santa Cruz, and Tarija in the south-east corner.
In the north-west is a Territorio de Colonias,
largely unexplored and reserved by the Govern-
ment for colonizing purposes, while part of the
department of Tarija is also unsurveyed, and is
the haunt of many wild tribes.

The natural resources of this territory are, in

BOLIVIA 143

the first place, minerals, and the wealth of Bolivia
in this direction is undeniable. Of all countries
of the world she exports most bismuth, is the
second largest producer of tin, and holds third
place as a silver producer. She possesses in
greater or less abundance almost all the known
metals of the world. The soil has yielded
immense quantities of gold, first for the Incas,
then for their Spanish conquerors, and later for
Portuguese and Brazilian exploiters, and there is
no doubt that much still remains. Statistics do
not give a correct idea of the amount of gold
mined annually, for most of it is exported clan-
destinely, but although for lack of labour, capital,
and transport facilities none of the mines can be
fully worked, and many of the gold-bearing dis-
tricts are entirely neglected, there are many rich
placers in the departments of La Paz, Cocha-
bamba, and Santa Cruz from which a far greater
amount of the precious metal is extracted than is
shown by official figures. Gold is also found in
districts of the departments of Potosi, Tarija, and
Chuquisaca, and to a limited extent is worked
there, but the richest region of all, around the
sources of the Purus, Madre de Dios, and Acre
rivers, is completely abandoned.

Tin is found in extraordinary abundance in the
north (La Paz), in the centre (Oruro), in the
south (Chorolque), and in the east of the Andean
zone of Bolivia (Potosi). Of these districts Potosi
produces about a half of the total, which amounted

144 THE TEN REPUBLICS

in 1910 to 38,548 tons, representing a value of
^^2,960,520. Silver is found principally in the
west of the Republic, in the auriferous zone of
the plateau which a geologist has described as
''a table of silver with legs of gold." From the
famous hill of Potosi, which is reputed to have
yielded during the 320 years that followed its
discovery metal to the value of ^^270,000,000,
some silver is still mined and ancient tailings
are worked, but the present low price of the
metal has hit the industry hard, and even Pula-
cayo, the richest of all the Bolivian mines,
second only to Broken Hill, with the costliest
of machinery can barely be worked at a profit.
Thousands of mines are abandoned, owing either
to the invasion of water in the shafts or, more
frequently, to lack of capital, labour, and trans-
port facilities. Nevertheless, after tin and rubber,
silver is the most important product, and was
exported in 1910 to the value of ;^42 1,163.

Copper is found in the eastern chain of the
Bolivian Andes and its ramifications, and even
far beyond these, for there are rich veins in
the Chuquisaca and Tarija departamentos in the
south-west. The industry has suffered from high
freights and relatively low prices, but, as with
silver -mining and every other enterprise in
Bolivia, there is little doubt that it will improve
upon the completion of railways now in con-
struction or projected. In 1910 the total export
of the metal was 3190 tons, worth ^142,956, a

BOLIVIA 145

distinct improvement upon the 1909 figures. Of
bismuth, a comparatively little-used metal, there
were exported in 1910 some 214 tons, value
;^i 53,873. It exists in conjunction with tin and
more rarely with silver, and a far greater quan-
tity could be exported if the European market,
which is said to be a monopoly of the King of
Saxony, could accommodate it. In 1910 exports
of zinc, which comes principally from Carangas,
in the department of Oruro, showed a remarkable
increase, 11,797 tons of ore, worth ;^34,8oo, being
produced as against a matter of 183 tons in 1909.

Wolfram, antimony, magnetic iron and lead
ore are also exported on a small scale, and
amongst the infinity of minerals which the
country undoubtedly contains are cobalt,
platinum, arsenic, manganese and others.
Amethysts, turquoises, emeralds, topazes and
opals have been found, mostly in Lipez, in the
south-west, and diamonds are rumoured to exist
in the same district. Non-metallic minerals
include borax, petroleum, coal and nitrate,
though Bolivia lost the best part of her nitrate
lands to Chile.

Bolivia's rubber industry is next in importance
to the tin-mining, and in 1909 the exports of this
product amounted to 3052 tons. Rubber forests
cover large tracts of territory in the Beni and
Santa Cruz departamentos and the Territorio de
Colonias, and to a lesser extent in the northern
portion of the department of Cocliabamba and

L

146 THE TEN REPUBLICS

La Paz. The inaccessibility of some of the
regions has left a great source of wealth un-
touched, but here again the coming of the
railways will gradually open even the remotest
districts and facilitate export.

Agriculture in Bolivia is in a backward con-
dition, and is mainly in the hands of small Indian
farmers who raise little more out of a soil un-
matched in South America for fertility than
suffices for their own needs. Wheat was at one
time largely grown, especially in Cochabamba,
which was the '* Granary of Alto Peru," but very
little is cultivated now. Coca is grown to a great
extent, and though consumed enormously in
Bolivia the surplus exported last year repre-
sented a value of ;^33,6oo. A little quinine and
less coffee are the only other vegetable exports
worthy of mention. Horned cattle roam wild in
great herds over the plains of the Mojos and
other regions, but no attempt has been made to
improve the breed. A small quantity of hides
and horns are exported, and the meat obtained
is sufficient to supply most of the republic, but
otherwise cattle-rearing is a neglected industry.
It should be remembered that half of Bolivia's
population is pure Indian, and from time im-
memorial has domesticated or endeavoured to
domesticate the alpaca, the vicuna, and, above
all, the llama, which is regarded by the natives
with a kind of veneration. The llama is a smaller
member of the camel family, and as a beast of

BOLIVIA 147

burden will carry a hundredweight for ten or
twelve miles daily over the roughest routes,
feeding on almost anything and, when necessary,
going without water for several days. The flesh
of the llama is eaten by the Indians, its wool
is made into divers fabrics, its hide into leathern
trunks, boots, and saddles, and its bones into
various implements used in the native looms.
Some Indians possess herds of thousands of these
useful beasts. Sheep abound in great flocks in
the cold and temperate regions, and a small
amount of wool is exported.

Such industries as exist are of a primitive kind,
but the poverty of the majority of the population,
which restricts the import trade, makes these
sufficient to a certain extent for the home market.
Spinning and weaving are carried on as house-
hold occupations. Tanning and saddlery are
native industries.

The main railway of Bolivia is, of course, the
Antofagasta and Bolivia Railway. In its run of
'730 miles from the Chilian port to La Paz, the
seat of Government and chief commercial centre
of Bolivia, this line travels through some of the
grandest Andean scenery in South America and
in Bolivia taps a very rich mineral district.
Branches of this line are under construction, or
in contemplation, at Uyuni, Rio Mulato and
Oruro, the most important of those already
started being perhaps the Rio Mulato-Potosi line,
which before the end of 191 1 will open to modern

148 THE TEN REPUBLICS

travel the most famous mining city in South
America.

The line from the other great ChiHan port of
Arica to La Paz is being very rapidly pushed
forward. From La Paz it will continue almost
due south to Corocoro, the centre of a great
copper district. The importance of this line lies
in the fact that it will bring La Paz within twelve
hours, on the downward journey, of the coast,
and fifteen hours on the upward journey.

Other important railway projects in Bolivia are
the proposed continuation of the Mollendo-La
Paz Railway along the shores of Lake Titicaca,
which will link up Guaqui at the south-east end
of the lake with Puno, in Peru, on the north-
west, and the construction of a line which, though
not completed, is already carrying passengers
and freight for some distance, between the
Bolivian town of Villa Bella on the north-east
frontier and the Brazilian town of Santo Antonio.
Between these two towns is a long stretch of
rapids, the navigation of which has caused much
loss of life and cargo, and the avoidance of water-
transit when the railway is completed will greatly
assist the development of the rich rubber districts
of the Beni.

A feature of Bolivia's railway programme is
the important part taken by United States capi-
talists in the financial arrangements. South
American railway construction having hitherto
been one of the close preserves of Great Britain.

BOLIVIA 149

It was perhaps inevitable that with the abolition
of slavery the labour problem should have con-
fronted the Republic. The Spaniards had solved
it by the system of encomiendas^ which meant the
apportionment, with lands, of Indians who were
forced to work them ; but the free and indepen-
dent native of to-day generally prefers to till his
own plot of ground, or to grow coca, or, in small
communities, to work his own little mine. Labour
is very unevenly distributed ; the Indians who
inhabit La Paz and its environs are far too
numerous for the demand in that district, and
their unskilled labour (they are chiefly carriers
and porters) does not command a better wage
than sixpence a day, while other districts languish
for lack of their assistance. Though sporadic in
their efforts they are good workers, having been
employed in most of the railway undertakings,
and make the best miners in South America ; but
there are not enough of them, and for the solution
of the labour problem it would seem that Bolivia
must look to the spread of education, the advance
of her railroads, and the influx of foreign immi-
gration.

The population (over 2,000,000), is very sparse ;
about 30 per cent are ** whites," the remainder
consisting mostly of half-breeds and Indians. La
Paz, the largest centre, contains 80,000 inhabi-
tants ; there are only five other towns whose
population is above 10,000.

Elementary education in Bolivia is free and,

150 THE TEN REPUBLICS

nominally at least, compulsory. It is in charge
of the municipalities, who are, however, re-
sponsible to a Minister of Public Instruction, and
it is provided in Fiscal schools at a total cost of
about ^50,000 a year. Secondary education is
represented by a course of seven years' instruc-
tion in excellent State schools, after which the
pupil who has obtained the degree of hachiller
passes into the institutions for higher or profes-
sional education. There are seven universities.
The teaching staffs are usually very competent ;
the material upon which they have to work is
encouraging, and often extremely intelligent, and
the Government is devoting more and more money
and attention to the subject ; in short, the educa-
tional facilities throughout the country tend yearly
to the improvement of the people in general and
of the Indian population in particular. There
is a national School of Commerce in La Paz, and
several Schools of Agriculture, and a fine School
of Mines in Oruro.

Of the cities of Bolivia the most interesting is
La Paz, which through centuries of isolation has
survived to see itself connected by railways to all
the important cities of the republic and to the
outside world. It is a healthy city, and lies,
surrounded by the green gardens of its suburbs,
in a deep valley dominated by the majestic snow-
clad lUimani and a high plateau named El Alto ;
and the panorama of red roofs, white houses of
old Spanish architecture, hilly streets, and shady

BOLIVIA 151

avenues which is unfolded as the descent is made
into the city is one not soon forgotten.

In La Paz there is an excellent National
Museum under the able direction of Seiior M. V.
Ballivian, who is the Chief of the National Bureau
of Immigration, Statistical and Geographical
Propaganda.

The commerce of La Paz consists of the im-
portation from beyond-seas of general merchan-
dise, and of the exportation of tin, copper, a little
gold, coca, rubber, tobacco, and other products.
It would appear from statistics that trade in La
Paz is booming, and though for various sufficient
reasons Bolivian statistics are not too trustworthy,
there is no doubt that in 1910 the city's imports
reached a very considerable figure.

Sucre, the nominal capital, is a city of wide,
straight streets, cut through by four ravines
spanned by many bridges. Oruro stands at the
foot of a low mountain range, a bleak and windy
city rescued from decay by the railway from
Antofagasta, and now an ugly hive of industry.
Cochabamba is built on level marshy ground
within sight of snow-covered mountains, which
temper the heat to its fertile fields, an unprogres-
sive city as yet, content to be a literary and social
centre. Trinidad's neglected streets fade more
rapidly every year into the surrounding pasture-
lands, and the town is being abandoned by its
inhabitants in favour of the Beni district and its
rubber.

152 THE TEN REPUBLICS

The great Lake Titicaca, the highest consider-
able body of water in the world and the greatest
lake in South America, attracts many tourists to
the north-west of Bolivia. It is the traditional
birthplace of the first Inca, and on two of its many
islands are the prehistoric Temples of the Sun and
Moon, the Palace of the Priestesses of the Sun
and other ancient structures. The lake is navi-
gated by craft of all descriptions, from large
steamers to the native balsas, canoes built entirely
of rushes, with sails of the same material. The
scenery of the lake is magnificent, and on a
moonlight night its strange beauty, with Illimani
dominating the background, beggars descrip-
tion.

Turning again to commercial matters, statistics
show that in respect of exports to Bolivia, America
was first in 1909 with a total value of ^869,930,
Great Britain second with ;{J'63 1,548, and Germany
third with ;^425., 170. Comparing these figures
with those for 1908, it would appear that Ger-
many's trade with the country decreased in 1909
by nearly 50 per cent, America's increased by
i^2 16,758, and Great Britain's by ^208,942. While
it is difficult to account for Germany's extra-
ordinary loss of trade, the outstanding fact is that
Great Britain is not doing as well as America,
and this is the more to be regretted in that she is
the principal consumer of Bolivia's exports and that
in Bolivia English people and English goods are
distinctly popular. President Villazon, too, is

BOLIVIA 153

very friendly to English interests, and has on
more than one occasion expressed his desire for
broader commercial relations with Great Britain.
On the other hand, if statistics may be relied
upon, America's predominance is explained by
the fact that although American imports in 1909
were more than double in value those of Germany
and greatly exceeded the value of the English im-
ports, they paid less than half of the duty collected
upon either of the latter, which were about equal
in this respect.

The following table shows the principal exports
of Bolivia for the two last years : —

1909. 1910.

Exports. Tons. Value. Tons. Value.

Tin (barrilla) . 35,566 2,532,328 38,548 2,960,520

Copper . . 3,097 131,290 3,191 142,956

Bismuth. . 236 116,086 213 i53j873

Silver . . 155 457,75° H3 421,155

Rubber . . 3,052 i,755j77i 3,007 2,146,020

Coca . . 129 18,626 196 33,608

Of the total exports in 1910 England was princi-
pal consumer, receiving products to the value of
;^3) 703)679. Germany was next with ;^i 23,393,
while America's custom amounted to only ^12,807
worth.

Bolivia's actual monetary unit is the silver
boliviano, no gold having been coined since
1842. Its value is approximately 191 pence, or
i2\ bolivianos to the pound sterling, which,

154 THE TEN REPUBLICS

together with the Australian pound, is legal tender
at this rate. Other coins are the half boliviano
or 50 centavoSy the peseta or 20 centavos^ the real
or 5 centavos, of proportional value. Banks of
emission issue notes of i, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100
bolivianos (written Bs.)

There is no recognized external debt ; the in-
ternal debt, represented by debts contracted during
the War of Independence, indemnities and loans
arising from subsequent civil and other wars, and
accumulated dues on account of contracts and
loans made by the Republic during a former
President's administration, amounts with Treasury
bonds to about ^1,200,000, and her revenue, which
is derived mainly from customs duties, liquor and
other taxes, consular invoice fees, mining patents,
etc., shows a fair increase yearly, amounting in
1908 to ^1,274,030.

The President of Bolivia, Dr. Eliodoro Villazon,
is a man who combines clearness of view with
strength of purpose, and whose statecraft follows
the lines of simple, straightforward and sincere
patriotism. He has no overwhelming difficulties
to contend with, for Bolivia's relations with her
neighbours and with Europe have been sealed by
treaties ratified after the conclusion of the war
with Chile in 1883, which accorded her better
terms than the circumstances of that war would
have led her to hope for, and again in 1903-4
as regards the boundary disputes with Brazil,
Chile and Peru. Commerce is developing rapidly,

BOLIVIA 155

and the dormant possibilities of the country are
becoming more widely known. The influx of
foreign capital and labour is not yet nearly suffi-
cient for her needs, but arrangements are being
made to show security for the one and to attract
the other by generous provisions for colonists.

CHAPTER VII

BRAZIL

The steady progress of the United States of
Brazil has been in the arts of peace, if not in-
variably along the lines of least resistance. The
Brazilian people may be proud of three great con-
quests— the abolition of slavery, the overthrow of
a venal and effete monarchy, and the extermina-
tion, from most of their cities, of the deadly
mosquito.

Brazil was twice ''discovered" in the same
year, for Pinzon, early in 1499, explored the mouth
of the Amazon. The Spaniard, however, left the
claiming of the country to the Portuguese navi-
gator Cabral, who on April 25th cast anchor
in Porto Seguro, in the south of what is now the
State of Bahia. Taking possession in the name of
the Crown of Portugal he named it the ''Land of
the True Cross," but when its first-fruits reached
Europe and were found to consist largely of the
dye-wood known as "brazil" the country was by
common consent re-named.

The first attempt to colonize the new land was
made in 1531, when three hundred colonists were
landed at Pernambuco, and were followed, later on,

156

158 THE TEN REPUBLICS

by negro slaves imported from Africa. Brazil was
divided into fifteen captaincies, each with a fifty-
league stretch of coast, and each ruled by a noble
friend of the Portuguese King. For a long time the
record of the captaincies was one of struggle with
the Indians and with the Dutch, Spanish, British,
and French invaders. Between 1624 and 1644 the
Dutch gained a firm foothold in the country,
occupying Pernambuco, Ceara and Maranhao,
in the north, but by 1654 they were expelled.
Meanwhile the southern interior was being ex-
plored and developed as far as Rio Grande do Sul
and the river Paraguay, and subsequently the
districts now occupied by the States of Sao Paulo
and Bahia were ransacked for gold and diamonds.
Difficulties with the French, however, continued
up to 1713, when, by a treaty with Portugal, the
course of the river Oyapock, the present boundary
of French Guiana, was established as the dividing
line between the two nations' possessions ; and it
was not until 1777, after much fighting with varying
success, that the Portuguese and Spaniards could
agree as to the division of the continent.

Then disaffection with the mother-country
began, caused, it would seem, by the machina-
tions of the Church and the burning, in Lisbon,
of certain liberal-minded Brazilians. In 1762
General Gomes d'Andrade was appointed Viceroy,
and it was under his administration that the
cultivation of coffee was begun. In 1789 occurred
the unsuccessful revolution headed by Tiradentes,

BRAZIL 159

who was barbarously executed at Rio, by then
the capital of the country. But through all
the civil and external strife Brazil was being
developed, and in 1800 her population was over
3,000,000, and her exports amounted to ;^2, 500,000.
In 1807 I^ii^g John of Portugal, fleeing from the
armies of Napoleon, was escorted by a British
fleet to his South American possessions, and
received there with acclamation. Upon his re-
turn to Portugal in 182 1 (leaving his son Dom
Pedro as Regent) the mother-country's treatment
of Brazil became so harsh and oppressive that in
1822 Dom Pedro proclaimed her independence,
which, after three years of resistance, was recog-
nized by Portugal.

The first Brazilian Parliament was held in 1826.
From the beginning Dom Pedro had to contend
with Republican plots and conspiracies, and in
1 83 1 he left the empire to his five-year-old son,
Pedro, and a Regent. Disorders continued, and
were suppressed, but in 1865 began the serious
war with Paraguay, which lasted seven years and
cost Brazil ^^50,000,000, an expenditure which
indicates the material progress she had made,
since it did not quite ruin her. In 1871 the
Imperial Congress, modelled on English lines,
declared slave-born children to be free, though
slavery was actually abolished only in 1888. It
was a moral victory, which meant ruin to slave
owners, who, when compensation was refused
them, turned against the Royal Family, and by

i6o THE TEN REPUBLICS

strengthening the Republican party effected the
downfall of the monarchy and the establishment
of the Republic on November 15th, 1889.

The history of the Republic begins with civil
contention and a great financial and economical
crisis. Order was gradually restored and the
credit of the country re-established, largely by
the wise administration of President Prudente
de Moraes, who assumed office in 1898. His
successors have been men of patriotism and
ability, and the present holder of the Presidency,
Marshal Hermes da Fonseca, combines these
qualities in a fashion which, if he can maintain
harmony amongst the members of his own party,
augurs well for Brazil's immediate future.

Brazil lies in two zones, the Equator passing
through its two Northern States and the Tropic
of Capricorn crossing its Southern territory. It
is the largest of the Latin-American republics,
having an area, exclusive of its small islands
in the Pacific, of 3,290,564 square miles. It
borders on all the countries of South America
with the exception of Chile and Ecuador, extend-
ing northwards to the Guianas and Venezuela,
on the north-west, west and south-west to
Colombia, Perii, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argen-
tina, and southwards to Uruguay. On the north-
east, east and south-east the Pacific Ocean washes
its comparatively little-indented coasts for a dis-
tance of 4036 miles.

Physiographically it may be described as one

BRAZIL i6i

vast upland, with valleys and plains covered
thickly with forest and other vegetation and
watered by numerous great rivers. The principal
mountains, which nowhere attain a great eleva-
tion, lie to the east, near the coast, and in the
centre, where they form two long chains. The
most important of the rivers is, of course, the
Amazon, which flows for 2160 miles through
north Brazil, and with its many great navigable
tributaries (of which the Tapajoz, Tocantins and
Maranhao have their rise in the central region far
south) forms the largest hydrographic basin in the
world. Many streams of lesser volume flow into
the Pacific, and in the central and south regions
the chief rivers are the S. Francisco, Plate, Uru-
guay, Iguassu, and Parana. The principal lakes are
the channel-connected Lagoa-mirim and Laguna
dos Patos in the extreme south, but it may be
mentioned that the Island of Marajo, in the mouth
of the Amazon, has two large lakes of its own.

Brazilian territory is divided into twenty-one
States and the Acre Territory, and in approximate
geographical order (west to east and north to
south) these are as follows : Amazonas, Para,
Maranhao, Ceara, Rio Grande do Norte, Para-
hyba, Pernambuco, and Alagoas ; Acre Territory,
Matto Grosso, Goyaz, Piauhy, Sergipe and
Bahia ; south of Bahia are Minas Geraes, Espi-
rito Santo, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Parana,
Santa Catharina and Rio Grande do Sul.

Brazil is a Federated Republic, and the States
u

1 62 THE TEN REPUBLICS

are autonomous as to their interior administration,
raising their own loans and fixing their own
export duties. Excepting the Federal district
(Rio de Janeiro State), which is governed by a
Prefect, they are administered by Governors ap-
pointed by the President. The Federal Govern-
ment is vested in the legislative, executive and
judicial branches. There are two Houses — the
Senate and the Chamber of Deputies — the former
composed of sixty-three members, three for each
State, and the latter of 212 members, one for every
70,000 inhabitants. Senators are elected by
popular vote for a term of nine years, and
Deputies for a term of three years. At the head
of the Executive is the President, who is assisted
by a Cabinet composed of Secretaries, for, respec-
tively— Finance, War, Marine, Foreign Affairs,
Justice, Interior and Public Instruction, Agricul-
ture, and Communications and Public Works.
The President receives a salary of ^8000, and
is elected by direct vote for a term of four years,
upon the conclusion of which he is ineligible for
a similar period. The franchise extends to all
male citizens over twenty-one years of age.

The judiciary is composed of a Supreme Court
of fifteen Justices, appointed for life by the Presi-
dent with the approval of the Senate. There are
also twenty-one Federal Judges, one for each State.

The population of Brazil is estimated at
20,515,000, and though no census details are
published, it may be calculated that at least half

BRAZIL 163

is composed of Indians and negroes. The ten-
dency is for the *' whites" to increase and to pre-
dominate over their humbler brothers the apathetic
Indian and the careless negro, who, it must be
said, provide but poor material for education.

Every able-bodied male between the ages of
twenty-one and forty-four is liable for military
service. In view of the severe wars in which
Brazil has participated in the past, it is not sur-
prising to learn that the war strength of the army
is anything up to 300,000 ; the peace footing does
not perhaps go beyond 30,000 (of whom 2626 are
commissioned officers), but this figure varies
according to the Budget vote, which, as will be
seen, is increased for 191 1. A reorganization
of the army received the approval of the President
in January, 1908, and under this scheme conscrip-
tion practically came into operation. Every
citizen is liable to serve : (a) two years in the active
army and seven in the reserve (forces of the first
line) ; {b) three years in the army of the second
line and four in its reserve ; and (c) three years in
the National Guard and four in its reserve (forces
of the third line). The central garrison head-
quarters are Rio de Janeiro, Parana, Santa
Catharina, Rio Grande do Sul, and Matto Grosso.
It is estimated that under the new scheme 100,000
troops could be mobilized immediately. It is now
proposed to introduce foreign military officers as
instructors in the practical schools, which include
the Staff College in the capital, the Military

i64 THE TEN REPUBLICS

College at Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul), and
the Artillery and Engineering School at Realengo,
near Rio. The President of the Republic is
Commander-in-Chief in time of war, and the
Minister of War has control over the War Office.

An accelerated naval programme provided for a
substantial increase in the fleet and armament,
which took effect in August, 1910. This would
give a total effective of six battleships (three of
them of the Dreadnought type), seven protected
cruisers, five torpedo gunboats, fifteen torpedo-
boat destroyers, three submarines, two auxiliary
vessels, and a score of other craft. This relatively
powerful fleet is manned by 7730 officers and
seamen, and having regard to the number and
value of the Brazilian ports the increase in her
naval personnel and materiel foreshadowed for
191 1 would appear to be justified.

The intellectual status of the people has been
greatly elevated by the enhanced educational
facilities established soon after the Declaration
of Independence, in 1822. The year after, a
decree empowered any citizen, morally and intel-
lectually fit, to conduct a private school. The
education provided by the State is secular, but
the Constitution empowers Congress to provide
for development in literature, arts, and the
sciences. In certain States primary education
is compulsory, and along these lines it is being
satisfactorily extended. Public and private prim-
ary schools in 1910 numbered 11,147 institutions,

BRAZIL 165

providing for some 566,000 scholars, and of
secondary schools there were 327, with 30,000
scholars. A Decree of September, 1909, author-
ized the creation of free industrial schools in the
capitals of States, and there are also Trade
Schools, State-assisted, in about a dozen leading
centres. Brazil possesses no University properly
so-called, but the higher branches of education
are provided for at such seminaries as the excellent
Polytechnic at Rio de Janeiro, the law colleges of
Sao Paulo and Pernambuco, the medical colleges
at Rio and Bahia, the School of Fine Arts at Rio,
and the mining school at Ouro Preto.

The potential riches of the respective States of
Brazil are difficult to gauge, and the present and
actual wealth of the country is somewhat unevenly
distributed. The three biggest States (Matto
Grosso, Amazonas and Para), much of whose
territory remains unexplored, are to a large extent
vast tracts of thick forest, rich in rubber, magnifi-
cent cabinet-woods, valuable medicinal and food
plants, piassava (bass fibre) and other plants of
industrial application ; but practically all that is
exploited is rubber, cocoa and brazil-nuts, and in
comparison with rubber the rest are of little import-
ance. The rivers teem with fish, and a little fish-
glue and isinglass are exported, but less every
year recently. Some cattle-raising is done and
the export of hides is developing. In 1908 the
exports of these three States amounted to over
i^i 2,000,000 (Matto Grosso, ;^5 12,000).

1 66 THE TEN REPUBLICS

Maranhao, Piauhy, Ceara, Parahyba and Rio
Grande do Norte may be described as poor States.
Their principal productions are hides and skins
(especially goats' skins), rum, brazil-nuts, the wax
of the carna/iuda pa.\m, cotton-seed and raw cotton,
and rubber. Between them they exported in 1908
just over ;^i, 000,000 worth of these commodities.
Pernambuco produced, in the same year, sugar,
skins, cotton and carnahuha wax to the value of
^560,500. Bahia's staples are more numerous
and tap the mineral kingdom — cocoa, rubber,
coffee, whale oil, skins and hides, monazite sand,
diamonds and other precious stones, piassava^
sugar and tobacco being exported in 1908 to the
value of over ^^3, 600,000. Goyaz and Minas
Geraes rely principally upon their mineral deposits,
and are mentioned later in connection with these,
but the latter also sends her sister States dairy
produce and other pastoral products to the value
of some i^2, 500,000 yearly.

Parana grows huge quantities of mate^ or Para-
guayan tea, and with wax and bananas her exports
amounted to ;^i, 221,000. Santa Catharina, another
poor State, produced for export, hides, tobacco,
mate^ sugar, mandioca flour, bananas and a little
timber, worth in all about ;^27o,ooo. The two
great staples of Rio Grande do Sul, a cattle
raising State, are hides and inate^ and of these
and horns, a little tobacco, wool and copper ore,
she exported in 1908 just short of i^i, 000,000
worth.

BRAZIL 167

We have said that the coast of Brazil is but
little indented ; but while there are few large bays
there are many good and safe ports. The bay of
Rio de Janeiro is in appearance second to none
but Sydney Harbour, and when the port works,
on which ^2,000,000 are being expended, are
complete, Rio will have the best accommodation
in South America, though not more than her
growing trade requires.

The trade movement in Santos amounted in 1910
to 1,222,906 tons, and the harbour facilities are
now quite modern and of the first order, with
excellent anchorage for deep-draught vessels.
Recife, the port of Pernambuco, is being dredged
to a depth varying from 24 to 28 feet, and the
shallows in the channel are being removed.
Retaining walls and a breakwater are also being
constructed, and the whole scheme, when com-
pleted in 1 9 14, will have cost about ;^3, 400,000.
In the port of Rio Grande the entrance channels
are being dredged to a depth of 32 feet, and 5000
feet of quay area is being added to the existing
accommodation. The busy river ports of Para,
one hundred miles up the Amazon, and Manaos,
nearly one thousand miles above Para, near the
confluence of the River Negro, have both been
immensely improved at a corresponding cost, and
are now accessible to deep-draught vessels all the
year round.

Enough has been written about the beautiful
capital city of Brazil to render it almost familiar.

i68 THE TEN REPUBLICS

Peculiar morros^ or steep hills, covered with
clusters of fine villas surrounded by deep woods,
dominate the city proper, which slopes gently
down to the symmetrical bay. The magnificence
of its long avenues and its parks and buildings
impresses every visitor, and the fact is easily
credible that the sum of ;^i 2,000,000 was ex-
pended before the city assumed its present
splendour. But a fact of more moment is that
since 1902 Rio has been transformed from a
pest-house, a chosen haunt of yellow fever,
wherein to stay during the summer was to
court death, into one of the healthiest cities in
the world. It is but just to record that this
transformation was effected by Dr. Oswaldo
Gon9alves Cruz, under the beneficent admin-
istration of President Rodrigues Alves ; and
the story of the extermination of the fever-
carrying mosquito and of the lowering of the
mortality (from yellow fever) from 984 in 1902
to 7iil in 1909 is a suf^ficient monument to the
services of these two citizens and their coadjutors.
Rio de Janeiro has some 900,000 inhabitants.

Sao Paulo is the third most important city in
South America, and has grown with extraordinary
rapidity. Thirty years ago it was a town of about
60,000 inhabitants, a bishopric and a centre of
education. To-day it can boast a population of
300,000 souls, and some of the finest buildings
and avenues in Brazil. It is a healthy city, and
its height above sea-level (2300 feet) gives it the

BRAZIL 169

pleasantest of climates. Sao Paulo is within
two hours by rail of Santos.

Santos is the second port of Brazil, the outlet
for practically the whole of Brazil's chief product.
It has developed with its neighbour Sao Paulo,
and to-day has a population of 73,000, including
its municipal district. Its gas and electric light-
ing, electric trams and water supply are the work
of a British concern ; the drainage of the city,
however, was designed and organized by the
State. The Sao Paulo Railway, of which Santos
is the terminus, puts the city into communication
with most of the other railways of Brazil.

Para and Manaos are two really fine cities, and
there are many others of second rank. A feature
of the populous centres of modern Brazil is the
increased attention paid by the authorities to their
sanitation.

Railways in Brazil come into three categories —
those controlled by the State, those under Federal
administration, and those under Federal con-
cession and control. Of the first class are the
Dourado Railway, Sao Paulo — Goyaz Railway
and Araraquara Railway, all of Sao Paulo, and
the Brazil Federal Railway, of Minas Geraes.
The new mileage opened for traffic during 1910
on these lines amounted to 96 miles. To those
of the second category a total of 180 miles was
added, of which 119 were opened on the Central
Brazil Railway and 42 on the West of Minas
•Railway. In the third category, the Madeira-

I70 THE TEN REPUBLICS

Mamore Railway was extended to the 152nd kilo-
metres in the State of Matto Grosso, a distance of
95 miles, and there were important additions to
the mileage of the Baturite Railway, the Leo-
poldina Railway, the North-Western of Brazil,
and others. The extensions of most moment
were those of the Sao Paulo-Rio Grande Railway,
which joined Affonso Penna to the river Uruguay
in Rio Grande do Sul, and Sao Francisco to
Hansa in Santa Catharina, and incidentally
linked Montevideo and Rio de Janeiro. The
ocean passage from Rio to Montevideo, via
Santos, now takes on an average four days,
and the journey by rail at present occupies over
eight days, but when the line is in regular
running order the railway route will be covered
in about seventy-five hours.

In all, Brazilian railways were lengthened by
1 161 miles, about half of which were actually
constructed in 1910. This gives Brazil a total
of over 13,270 miles, nearly 5000 of which have
been built since 1889. In addition there are some
2900 miles under construction and at least 5000
miles projected, mainly with the object of opening
up the interior of the country and of linking up
existing lines.

Brazil's two principal products are agricultural
— coffee and rubber together representing some
80 per cent of her exports. The Northern States
of Para and Amazonas produce more rubber than
all the other countries of the world combined,

BRAZIL 171

while nearly four-fifths of the coffee consumed
comes from the south of Brazil, and principally
from the State of Sao Paulo. Coffee, indeed, has
'' made " Sao Paulo, and Sao Paulo is so insepar-
ably bound up with coffee that State and product
must be discussed together.

The State of Sao Paulo has an area of 112,278
square miles and a seaboard on the Atlantic of
some 300 miles in length. Its population, esti-
mated at 3,400,000, is about one-sixth of the entire
population of Brazil, and has largely been formed
by foreign immigration, which, since 1887, has
averaged numerically 58,885 a year and nearly
90 per cent of the entire influx. It is calculated
that in the State of Sao Paulo there are 600,000
Italians, 140,000 Spaniards, 100,000 Portuguese,
70,000 Germans and 30,000 Syrians, which must
represent a serious drain on the labour element of
the nations mentioned.

The growth of Sao Paulo has been remarkable
in every way. Previous to 1867 it had not a mile
of" railway ; now it has over 700 miles of line open
to traffic, and the Sao Paulo (city) railway station
is the finest, architecturally, in the world. In
1868 there was no factory of importance in the
State ; to-day there are twenty-three cotton mills,
with a total capital of i^2, 600,000 ; jute mills which
manufacture imported fibre into millions of coffee
sacks ; a mill which spins fibre out of a local plant
named ''aramina," much used as a substitute for
jute; over a hundred breweries, practically supply-

172 THE TEN REPUBLICS

ing the whole of the country with a beverage that
has become very popular amongst Brazilians ;
many factories for the manufacture of vermicelli
and other foods; and bottle, shoe and hat factories.
In all there are 334 industrial establishments in Sao
Paulo, with a total annual production of ;^8,o5o,ooo.
The figures which follow are eloquent of the
development of the export trade of Santos, the
principal and practically the only port of Sao
Paulo, and of the self-supporting capabilities of
the State as shown by the balance of trade : —

Exports.
. 20,284,872

Imports.
6,827,211

1906 .

1907 .

• 21,551,187

8,553.459

1908 .

• i7»329»53o

7,126,843

1909 1

. 27,074,622

7.145,045

I9IO .

• 19.747,942

9,487,995

Sao Paulo also has a considerable cattle-raising
industry, comprising about a million head of beef-
cattle. Some 130,000 beeves and 132,000 hogs
are slaughtered annually besides sheep and goats.
It is estimated that the number of horses amounts
to 230,000 and that of mules to 120,000. The strain
of the live stock in general is superior, and for
some time has been improved by imports from
England, France, Argentina, Uruguay and other
countries.

This purely agricultural state also grows sugar-
cane, cotton, bananas, rice, wheat, beans, tobacco,

1 1909 was an exceptional year owing to the coffee valorization
scheme, which caused a rush of exports in the latter half of 1909
whereby the first half of 1910 was abnormally affected.

BRAZIL

173

maize and grapes, but these products are unim-
portant when compared with the coffee output.
The value of the coffee exported during 1909
reached the extraordinary figure of ^32,384,536,
of which ;^26,042,752 was shipped through the
port of Santos and the greater part of the
remainder through Rio de Janeiro. The principal
consuming countries were : —

Tons.

Value.

United States .

. 423*239

^i3,553>34o

Germany .

. 199,192

6,301,316

France

. 100,424

3,205,200

Holland .

. 86,636

2,789.485

Great Britain .

. 32,410

1,051,768

There is no space to describe the scheme of
'* valorization " of coffee exportation, which up to
the present has worked exceedingly well for the
producers by, broadly, restricting plantation and
export and maintaining the price of the commodity.

The next most important product of Brazil is
rubber, and the wealth of the North Brazilian
forests in the lievea hraziliensis is by now famous.
The zone of production follows pretty closely the
basin of the Amazon and its tributaries, and the
two great rubber centres are Belem do Para, the
capital of the State of Para, and Manaos, capital
of the State of Amazonas. Rubber of different
and inferior grades is found in Ceara, Pernam-
buco, Bahia, Rio and Sao Paulo States, but in
insignificant quantities. It is calculated that in
Brazilian territory the extent of rubber-holding
forests at present untapped is at least equal to the

174 THE TEN REPUBLICS

acreage in exploitation, but this must be regarded
less as a calculation than as guess-work. Practi-
cally no planting is done, but *' estates" are
generally productive, if the trees are scientifically
tapped and periodically rested, for twenty years.
The tree which yields '^ caucho," a different species
of gum peculiar to the Amazon district, will not,
however, survive tapping, and is therefore cut
down and '' bled " into a leaf-lined pit ; so that in
course of time this tree must disappear, and with
it a considerable source of profit.

Rubber exports have increased from 13,390
tons in 1887 and 22,740 tons in 1897 to 36,490
tons in 1907 and 39,027 tons, worth ^^'18,315, 678,
in 1909, and upon the whole prices have at the
same time improved. The principal consumers
of the 1909 exportation, to the total of which
Para contributed 17,244 tons and Amazonas 17, 181
tons, were as follows : —

Value,

Tons.

£

United States .

. 20,239

9,698,414

Great Britain .

. 14,460

6,644,220

France

. 2,482

1,088,806

Germany .

994

406,487

In 1909 exports of hides and skins amounted
to 39,681 tons, value ^2,704,430. Hides (wet
salted) came principally from the huge pastoral
State of Rio Grande do Sul and from Rio de
Janeiro and Bahia, and dried skins from Ceara
in the north. Brazilian hides and skins generally
have an excellent reputation for size and con-

BRAZIL 175

dition, and obtain corresponding prices. Of the
1909 production Germany took hides and a few
tons of skins to the value of ^729,712 ; the United
States mostly skins, ^^720,588 ; France, ^^447, 916 ;
and Great Britain, ^134,234.

'*■ Mate " or Paraguayan tea, scarcely known in
Europe and the United States, is produced in
such abundance by the Southern States that
in 1909 it constituted the fourth most important
article of export, a total of 58,017 metric tons
being shipped, value ^^1,605,066. Argentina and
Uruguay were the greatest consumers, taking
43,161 and 11,877 tons respectively. Germany
took some 14 tons.

Cocoa, which until 1907 ranked third in im-
portance as a Brazilian product, is now fifth,
although since 1903 the cocoa exports have in-
creased by over 60 per cent. In 1907 Brazil
became the chief cocoa-producing country of the
world with a total of 24,397 tons, and the 1909
figures show a further great improvement in the
production. Of the total of 33,818 tons, worth
;^i,547,974, the State of Bahia produced as
usual about 85 per cent., or 28,264 tons, Para
3783 tons, and Manaos under 200. The principal
consumers were : France, 8650 tons, ;6^395,473 ;
Germany, 8346 tons, ^^260,340; United States,
7682 tons, ^^350,973 ; Great Britain, 5666 tons,
^260,517 ; and Holland, 1546 tons, i^7 1,444.

Next in importance after these five great staples
come tobacco, 29,782 tons (27,138 tons to Ger-

176 THE TEN REPUBLICS

many), ;^ 1,288, 736 ; sugar, 68,483 tons, ;^649,5oi ;
cotton, 9969 tons, ;^572,332 ; bar gold, 4^ tons,
^450,580; manganese, 241,000 tons, ^^346,062 ;
'^castanha" (brazil nuts) to the value of ;^298,742
(United States, ^^172, 049 ; Great Britain, ;^96,36i ;
Germany the remainder); Carnahuba wax (chiefly
from Pernambuco and Ceara), 3042 tons, over
half to Germany, ;^246,i27; bran, 38,158 tons,
;^242,ii4; cotton-seed, 33,615 tons, ;^i42,28o;
monazite sand (found in great quantities on the
shores of Rio and Bahia States), 6462 tons,
;^i4i,6i9, and precious stones, chiefly from
Bahia, ;^57,642, making, with miscellaneous
exports to the value of ;^672,944, a total export
trade of ;^6i,666,366, for 1909, which, compared
with the 1908 total of ;^44, 175,980, shows an in-
crease of ;^i 7,490, 386, or over 28 per cent.

If this record of the development of her export
trade be considered in conjunction Avith the fact
that the imports for the same year (^^35,938,025)
were, in proportion to the exports, as 58*3 to 100,
Brazil's commercial and economical position in
1909 can be gauged with some accuracy. The
following table compares the position during
recent years of the five countries which are the
principal consumers of Brazilian exports : —

1904.

1908.

1909.

£

£

£

United States

13,872,077

17,706,932

24,763,460

Germany .

4,492,375

6,964,846

9,626,090

Great Britain

6,374,696

6,521,890

9,966,436

France

1,998,831

3,376,069

5,302,824

Holland .

764,314

2,030,716

2,878,034

BRAZIL 177

In the matter of imports^ which below are com-
pared for the same years, it is interesting to note
the fluctuations in Great Britain's once pre-
eminent trade : —

1904.

1908.

1909.

£

£

£

Great Britain .

7,190,367

10,224,565

9,809,061

Germany

8,285,429

5,271,682

5,694,575

United States

2,884,775

4,298,439

4,527,325

Argentina

2,666,503

3,596,206

3,644,259

France

2,316,773

3.199.077

3.784,114

Amongst those of Brazil's natural resources
whose existence or extent is not indicated by the
export figures are its various mineral deposits. It
will be remembered that for nearly a century and
a half ( 1 728-1 871) Brazil was the world's first
diamond-producing country, and there are those
who believe that before long she will regain her
position. Alluvial and surface diamondiferous
deposits are worked, for the most part in primitive
fashion, in the States of Bahia (which exports the
^'carbonado," the black diamond used for diamond
cutting) Goyaz, Minas Geraes, Matto Grosso and
Parana, and the gravels often contain gold and
platinum. Diamantina, five hundred miles north
of Rio, is the most productive district, and is
now being worked by more scientific methods,
but the industry as a whole suffers from lack of
labour and transport facilities. Production figures
are unreliable, for contraband is rife, but all Brazil
is estimated to produce from ^1,000,000 to
;^2, 000,000 annually.

N

178 THE TEN REPUBLICS

The manganese ores occur chiefly in Minas
Geraes, and also in Bahia, Matto Grosso, and
other States. In 1907, a record year, 236,778 tons
were exported, worth ;^503, 137, but although the
lodes are remarkably rich the production has
since materially declined.

It is claimed that Brazil is one of the richest
countries of the world in iron, and, indeed, in
Minas Geraes the ores form mountains rather
than seams. They occur in every State, and
abound in Sao Paulo, Santa Catharina, Rio
Grande do Sul, and the States wherein manganese
is found. At present this source of wealth is
practically untouched, and throughout Brazil there
are but two or three concerns of importance
working.

Gold is being extracted in Minas Geraes, Goyaz,
Matto Grosso, Bahia, Sao Paulo, Rio Grande do
Sul, and Maranhao. Minas Geraes is the princi-
pal region, and amongst the mines in that State
are the well-known Morro Velho, Sao Joao d'El-
Rey and Passagem, the first named of which was
established in 1834. The industry is somewhat
heavily taxed, but the total annual output of bar
gold from 1904 to 1908 maintained a fairly even
average of ^38,385*

Brazil is not a manufacturing country, and her
industrial establishments number only some 3000,
employing 150,000 hands, and having a total
capital of ;^42,ooo,ooo.

Brazil's total trade in 1910 amounted to,

BRAZIL 179

approximately, ;^i 11,000,000, an increase of some
;^io,ooo,ooo over that of 1909. The balance of
trade in her favour, however, decreased very
appreciably, her imports rising from ^35,938,025
in 1909 to ;^47,87i,974 in 1910, while her exports
fell from ;^63, 724,440 to ^^63,091, 543. The balance
of trade in 1910 was therefore only about
;^i5,2i9,564, as compared with ^^26, 585,086 in
1909. The decrease in exportation was repre-
sented principally by a restricted coffee output,
and amongst the reasons for the increased im-
portation was the raising of the conversion rate
from I5d. to i6d., thereby increasing both the
purchasing power of the milreis and the specific
value of the imports.

Details of the 1910 exportation are available
only as far as October, but they show to some
extent the movement of the principal staples.
They are as follows : —

1909 (first ten months).

Value.

Quantity — Tons.

£

Coffee .

736,249

23.947,324

Rubber

3i>3i2

14,228,593

Tobacco

28,185

1,274,488

Sugar.

46,709

432,205

Mat^ .

46,349

1,312,562

Cocoa .

26,824

1,273,580

Cotton

7,164

292,341

Hides .

30>528

1,527,594

Skins .

3>4i5

833.543

[8o

THE TEN REPUBLICS

1910 (first ten

months).

Value.

C)u;

iiitily — Tons.

£

Cofifee.

. 435.896

18,479,005

Rubber

31.494

21,080,189

Tobacco

33.563

1.581,344

Sugar .

58,141

673,445

Mat6 .

47,818

1,545,066

Cocoa .

21,838

1,049,825

Cotton

7.746

635.237

Hides .

30,283

1,509,810

Skins .

2,459

635.003

Exports and imports to and from Great Britain
cannot be stated, but the imports in 1910 from the
United States showed a slight increase over those
of the previous year.

The revenues of the Federal Budget of Brazil
are composed of 62 per cent, of the custom-house
duties, 1 1 per cent, of the consumo (consumption
tax), 20 per cent, of the interior imposts, and
7 per cent, of various other taxes.

In 1910 the revenue from these sources was
;^3i,3i5,325, and the expenditure ;^30,894,040.
The following table shows the Budget for the
present year : —

Estimated ordin- £
ary receipts 29,565,852

Estimated spe-
cial receipts 3,112,666

32,678,518

Estimated ordin-
ary expendi- £
ture . . 33,586,840

Estimated spe-
cial expendi-
ture . . 3,116,666
36,703,506

The estimated deficit is therefore ^^4, 024,988.

BRAZIL i8i

The expenditure exceeds that of 1910 by
;^4, 256,666, the increase being mainly on the
Departments of War, Marine, Agriculture, and
Public Works. The service of the exterior debt
demands ^3,586,250,^ and Marine and War re-
quire the heavy sums of i^4, 2 1 6,433 and i^5, 254,966
respectively, an outcome of the growing naval
rivalry of the South American Powers.

In his message this year President da Fonseca
laid stress on the deficit in order to recommend to
Congress a reduction of expenditure, and he has
outlined a programme of economics which he is
determined to fulfil. He asked Congress to take
prompt measures to equalize receipts and expendi-
ture, but, on the other hand, he was able to report
that the revenue of the first three months of 191 1
showed an increase of ;^i,033,333 over that of the
corresponding period of 1910, and that, generally
speaking, the country's production and its value
had improved simultaneously.

The gold milreis (value 27 pence) is the nominal
monetary unit of Brazil, but the old 20, 10, and
5 milreis gold pieces have disappeared from circu-
lation, and the actual unit is the paper milreis^
worth 16 pence.

Properly to comprehend the Brazilian currency
it must be remembered that in 1906 a ** Conversion
Chest " was established, which receives gold coin
of legal currency and against this delivers notes,
payable to bearer, equivalent in value to the gold

^ In 1 9 10 the total indebtedness of Brazil, including that of all
the States and municipalities, stood at ;^232, 828,000.

i82 THE TEN REPUBLICS

received, calculated (since towards the end of
1 910) at the rate of 16 pence per viilreis^ or thou-
sand reis (written Rs. i $000).

The notes issued are legal tender, and are
redeemed at the '^Conversion Chest" at sight in
gold coin, one sovereign {^£\) being the equivalent
of Rs. 15 looo. All redeemed notes are destroyed,
and in this way it is hoped eventually to establish
a gold standard.

Notes are of the denomination of Rs. 500 $000,
Rs. 200 looo, Rs. 100 $000, Rs. 50 $000, Rs. 20 looo,
Rs. 10 looo, RS.5I000, Rs.2|ooo, and Rs. ilooo.
Coins are : Silver, Rs.2|ooo, Rs. ilooo, and 500
reis or half a ?ntlreis ; nickel, 400, 200 and 100
reis ; copper, 40 and 20 reis.

Brazil has no external difficulties for the
moment, all her boundary questions having been
peacefully settled some years ago. The last of
these disputes was with Bolivia as to the posses-
sion of the Acre Territory, and this ended in the
payment by Brazil of ;^2, 000,000 and the cession
of certain lands on the Matto Grosso frontier in
exchange for a large segment of the richest rubber
territory in South America.

Internal politics are also calm, and it is to be
hoped that the President will be able to overcome
a tendency among his own party to split into two
sections on certain questions.

It is also essential that he should be enabled
to carry out the intentions to establish an honest
Government that must be justly accredited to him.

CHAPTER VIII

CHILE

That its characteristics may be appreciated, Chile
should be approached from that part of Argentina
known as the Gobernacion del Neuquen. Arid,
with little vegetation and no game, the country
grows colder and bleaker until the icy ridges of
the Andes have been surmounted ; but once the
snow-line has been left behind the character of the
landscape changes. The green trees, the flowers,
and the waterfalls invite the traveller to dismount,
and the gay scenery below suggests to him a
pleasant mental picture of the land he has entered
upon — its bracing mountains, its fertile valleys,
and its three thousand miles of territorial seas.

Chile is a long narrow strip of hilly coast-line,
stretching the whole length of the South American
Continentfrom Cape Horn to theeighteenth parallel
of south latitude. It is bounded by the PacificOcean
on the west side, and by the summits of the Andes
on the east. The area is a little under three
hundred thousand square miles, its population four
million ; that is to say, that the proportionate share
of every Chilian in his native land is fifty times

183

i84 THE TEN REPUBLICS

that of every Englishman. Owing to its moun-
tainous character and its shape, Chile comprises
regions differing widely in climate and produc-
tions. In the rainless north are found mines and
nitrate fields ; the central provinces are given over
mainly to agriculture ; the cold south is densely
wooded.

The Spanish Conquest of vSouth America has
been already referred to. Pizarro sent Alamagro
to explore the country to the south of Peru, and
shortly afterwards a more systematic settlement
was undertaken by Pedro de Valdivia. But the
invaders took little but hard blows from the
Indians of the South-West ; indeed, it is only of
recent years that the Araucanians have recognized
the authority of Chile. The fierce struggles with
the natives, and the need — in the absence of the
precious metals — to wrest a living from the soil,
have given the Chilian the masculine qualities
which mark him out from his neighbours, but
for many years his progress was slow. The
Spanish system hampered trade ; there was little
gold in the country, and what there was, was
monopolised by the Church and the Spanish
officials.

But at the beginning of the nineteenth century
a thousand rhetoricians were inveighing against
the doctrines of feudalism, and were setting up in
their place those of the French Revolution ; the
*' Divine Right of Kings " was to give way to the
** Rights of Man." It was no time for a roi

i86 THE TEN REPUBLICS

faineant^ and when Ferdinand VII of Spain was
restored by others to the dominions he had declined
to defend, it was beyond him to reassert his
authority. Spanish America had refused to recog-
nize the makeshift Government which ruled Spain
in the absence of her lawful King, and upon his
restoration she fought against him for the liberty
she had lately enjoyed. A fierce struggle took
place, but in 1817 Bernardo O'Higgins, assisted
by the Argentine general, San Martin, defeated the
Royalists at Chacabuco, and the independence of
Chile was proclaimed. But the newly established
Republic had not yet secured peace, for the
Spanish forces were firmly established in Peru.
To attack them a navy was requisite. '^ The King
of Spain won South America with five little ships.
We shall drive him from it with just the same
number," said O'Higgins, and Lord Cochrane — an
English sailor too intractable for his own country's
service — acted on these instructions. *' In two and
a half years Cochrane had captured or destroyed
every ship in the Spanish navy on the coast. He
had suppressed piracy, taken the strongest fortress
of Spain, and incidentally made Peru and Chile
free and independent States." {Chile, G. F.
Scott Elliot.)

But freedom did not mean tranquillity ; the vic-
torious democrats, confronted with constructive
problems, suffered in popularity through their
ecclesiastical and financial policy. A period of
confusion followed, and thus there was formed in

CHILE 187

Chile that distrust of the revolutionary elements in
society to which she owes much of her subsequent
prosperity.

For the next thirty years Chile throve under a
Government that its enemies called '' reactionary "
— that is, a Government which denied political
power to classes incapable of exercising it. The
period referred to was one of order and progress
in spite of three liberal administrations and a war
against Peru and Bolivia, in which Chile was
victorious. Immigration was encouraged ; com-
munications were improved ; and much was done
to make the financial position more stable. Later
on, a more liberal policy was introduced as the
people became educated in self-government. In
1865 a dispute with Spain, which ended in the
bombardment of Valparaiso, brought home to
Chile the importance of sea power ; the lesson
was taken to heart, and when Chile went to war
with Peru and Bolivia in 1879 her victory was
largely due to her fleet.

Nitrate fields had been discovered in the coast
province of Antofagasta ; Chilian capital was in-
vested in them, and the dissatisfaction arising out
of the taxation imposed by Bolivia resulted in
war. Peru was compelled by a secret treaty to
join Bolivia, and it was on her that fell the brunt
of a conflict which lasted for three years. When
peace was made Chile acquired not only Anto-
fagasta, but the no less rich Peruvian province of
Tarapaca. It was agreed that Chile should ex-

i88 THE TEN REPUBLICS

ercise full sovereignty over Tacna and Arica during
ten years, at the end of which time the inhabitants
should be convoked to a plebiscite in order to
decide the definite nationality of the territory, the
country which should gain it paying the other as
an indemnity one million sterling. Peru and
Chile are at present at variance as to the basis of
the plebiscite.

Hitherto Chile had been distinguished from her
sister states by the capacity she had shown for
self-government ; political differences had rarely
led to bloodshed ; but in 1891 there broke out a
civil war, conducted the more earnestly for the
habitual self-control of the nation. It was caused
by the endeavour of President Balmaceda, a
Liberal, to force upon Chile unconstitutional
methods of government. When at last the Con-
stitutionalists were successful the war had cost
ten thousand lives and much treasure. Balma-
ceda committed suicide. The new Government
wisely conceded an amnesty, and of late years the
peaceful progress of the country has been un-
interrupted. The most important events have
been the settlement of a difficult boundary ques-
tion with Argentina, and an earthquake which
caused terrible destruction in Valparaiso and else-
where in 1906.

From the above sketch the reader will be pre-
pared to find that the Republic of Chile has been
organized upon a solid foundation. The constitu-
tion drawn up in 1833, and slightly modified later,

CHILE 189

established three powers in the State : the execu-
tive, the judicial, and the legislative.

The executive power is entrusted to the Presi-
dent of the Republic, who is elected by delegates
specifically chosen for that purpose by the people.
He holds office for five years and is ineligible for
reappointment during the next presidential term.
The President is assisted by a cabinet of six
ministers and also by a Council of State, whose
approval must be obtained for decrees of a certain
character.

The judicial power is exercised by a Supreme
Court of Justice, which supervises all the inferior
courts of the country, and suggests the list of names
for the Council of State which considers the nom-
inations before they are submitted to the President.
The more important judges are appointed by the
President with the Council of State. The mayors
of cities and other local officials are elected by the
citizens, the President of the Republic only nom-
inating the '' intendentes " of the provinces.

The legislative power is vested in the National
Congress, which consists of two Houses — a Senate
composed of thirty-two members and a Chamber of
Deputies composed of ninety-five members. Both
bodies are chosen by the same electors, the former
being returned by the provinces for six years,
and the latter by the departments for three
years.

Deputies and Senators must have reached the
age of twenty-one and thirty-six respectively and

I90 THE TEN REPUBLICS

must possess a specified income ; they are not
paid for their services. A considerable section of
the population is thus excluded from the legisla-
ture, a circumstance which may account for the
conservative attitude of that body in religious
questions. ''The Roman Catholic religion is
declared by the constitution to be the religion
of the State, and the President is required to pro-
tect it."

The State even goes so far as to subsidize the
Church out of the national budget, and, in return,
certain civil authorities have to be consulted, as
is common in South American countries, about
high ecclesiastical appointments. The Church
possesses considerable property of its own, and
numbers among its clergy men of higher social
rank than is customary in South America. On
the other hand complete religious toleration exists
and civil marriage is obligatory.

The seat of Government is Santiago, a fine
town of nearly 400,000 inhabitants situated nearly
2000 feet above the sea in the province of the same
name. Before inquiring into the policy adopted
by the Government some account must be given
of the people it represents.

The Chilians are bred from two hardy fighting
stocks, the Spanish and the Araucanian ; they
claim two advantages over the South American
peoples : in the first place there is no negro blood
in their veins, in the second the percentage of
Spanish is high — the ruling classes being Euro-

CHILE 191

pean by descent. The expression '* ruling classes"
may seem inappropriate until the restrictions on
the right to vote are examined. It will then be
found that political power resides in a fraction of
the people, for the suffrage is not granted to those
who are illiterate. The Government is alive to
the advantages of education — which is provided
without charge ; but the difficulty of reaching the
rural population is too great for it to be made
compulsory at present. Perhaps it is because the
Chilians are satisfied of the purity of their own
race that they exhibit none of the jealousy of
foreigners, which has retarded the progress of
some of the neighbouring States.

Foreigners, indeed, their capacity once proved,
have never been grudged high positions, and
history shows that Cochrane and O'Higgins
and others hailing from the United Kingdom
repaid Chile good measure for her hospitality.

She, on her side, has done everything possible
to encourage immigration ; repeated efforts have
been made to obtain colonists from Europe, and
lands have been set apart for them in the forest
provinces. As a result of this policy there are
several prosperous German settlements in the
south.

Another instance of this intelligent cosmopoli-
tanism is found in the constitution of the fighting
services, whose record reflects credit on the system.
The navy has followed the methods of Great
Britain, whose yards have furnished the Chilian

192 THE TEN REPUBLICS

warships, while the army is German in organiza-
tion. It is German, too, in that it is a national
militia in which all able-bodied citizens are obliged
to serve.

We have now seen that the Chilians have ac-
cepted democratic principles with the security to
the citizen that they imply, and that they have
adapted them so as wisely to prevent the illiterate
classes from controlling the national administra-
tion. They have thus established a Government
distinguished for the stability of its position and
the continuity of its policy. A study of the history
of the last century leaves the reader wondering
that the South American Republics should have
been so ready to declare war when so unprepared
to carry it on, but from any such criticism Chile
is exempt. The struggle with Peru in 1879-82
was the turning-point of her existence ; she fore-
saw the coming storm, girded herself to meet it,
and took full advantage of its effect on her adver-
saries.

The nitrate fields have strengthened her financial
position and have thus enabled her to find money
for the needs of the people while reducing taxes
that were prejudicial to commerce. At the same
time she has not presumed on her prowess in war
to bully her neighbours ; in fact, her readiness to
enter into arbitration treaties earned for her at
the celebration of the centenary of her Independ-
ence an encomium from Sir Edward Grey, which
sums up what has been said above. He remarked

CHILE 193

that the prosperity of Chile had been one of
growing trade. In the last twenty-five years her
imports had more than doubled, and her exports
had increased over 60 per cent. The development
by Chile of her railways and ports showed how
strong was her desire and intention to be in the
main stream of world communication and pro-
gress, and he felt sure that she would hold an
honourable place in it.

As to the general policy of Chile, its peaceful
tendency had been most striking. In the year
1902 Great Britain had the honour, by the award
of King Edward, of taking part in a peaceful
settlement between Chile and Argentina of
the dispute which had been referred to arbitra-
tion. Since then Chile and Argentina together
had set an example by a general Arbitration
Treaty, and various frontier disputes between
Chile and her neighbours had been settled by
agreement. Nobody for a moment thought that
that peaceful policy on the part of Chile — the
settlement of these disputes by agreement— had
been due to any weakness of hers. On the con-
trary, she had not only a mercantile marine, but
a navy to protect it, and an army which was
recognized as capable of protecting Chilian in-
terests. All the more because she had this strength
did Great Britain recognize and congratulate her
on the peaceful settlement by arbitration of diplo-
matic disputes.

It is only possible to add a few details to the
o

194 THE TEN REPUBLICS

general statements made by Sir Edward Grey.
In the matter of communications a glance at the
map suggests that a narrow country with so long
a sea-board will regard the water rather than the
railway as her carrying agent. Only one trunk
line is practicable in this ribbon-shaped land, and
under these circumstances the construction of more
than 3380 miles of railway without incurring
any debt is a creditable achievement. Of this
amount a little over one-third belongs to private
companies and the rest to the State ; among the
former are included the lines in the nitrate region.
At the beginning of this year there were, more-
over, 1552 miles under construction.

The ^'longitudinal railway" from Tacna in the
north to Port Montt in the south of Chile is
rapidly being pushed forward. Its total length
will be 2198 miles. It will be in close communica-
tion with twenty-eight transversal railways, and,
having regard to the Government's programme
in connection with the laying of double tracks on
some sections of its lines and proposals for electri-
fication of other lines, it may be anticipated that
the Chilian Railway system will be one of the
most serviceable, best planned and constructed
systems of South America. With the opening of
the Transandine Tunnel there began a new era
for Chile. The long sea journey is no longer
necessary, and she may now expect the immi-
grants whom the Andes have hitherto barred out
from her fertile vallev. Their advent will be an

CHILE 195

even greater boon to the country than the new
outlet to the Atlantic provided for its products.

Still for many years to come a large section of
the population must look to the sea to supply their
needs. There are some fifty ports upon the coast,
of which about a dozen are used for foreign trade
— Valparaiso, Iquique, Antofagasta, Taltal, Mejil-
lones, Caleta Buena, Talcahuano and Tocopilla
being the most important. Unfortunately some
of these are exposed to the wind, and in others
difficulties are created by shifting sand bars. The
determination of the Government to give facilities
to shippers may be inferred from a recent law
which authorizes the President to contract a loan
of more than four millions sterling for the im-
provement of the ports of Valparaiso and San
Antonio. The former is the chief port on the
West Coast of South America as terminus of the
Trans-Andean line ; it is an important railway
centre, and it possesses numerous industries to
give employment to its inhabitants, who number
over two hundred thousand.

Of the exports of the country more than sixty
per cent, consists of nitrate of soda, copper and
wheat being next on the list ; the chief imports
are, on the one hand, machinery, railway material
and coal, which may be classed together as being
in a sense raw material, and cotton and woollen
goods on the other.

A comparison of Chile's exterior commerce for
the last two years shows a considerable increase

196 THE TEN REPUBLICS

for 1910 in both branches. The official figures
are : —

1909. 191 o. Increase.

£ £ £

Export . 22,982,243 24,662,038 1,679,795

Import . 19,656,207 22,311,427 2,655,220

42,638,450 46,973,465 4,335,015

It also shows that the balance of trade in Chile's
favour was reduced from ;6^3, 326,036 in 1909 to
i^2, 350,61 1 in 1910, and from the following table
of the principal items of importation it may be
seen in what directions the imports have been so
appreciably augmented : —

Coal, petroleum, and

other combustibles
Textiles, i.e. straw,

hemp, and jute
Cotton

Woollen . ' .
Iron and steel goods
Machinery and tools .
Live animals (chiefly

bulls) . . . 1,351,336 1,130,926-220,410

Food-stuffs (sugar,

rice, coffee, tea, oil,

mat6, etc.) . . 1,564,647 1,752,267+187,620

Imports were increased from the United States
by ;^767,i3i, from Germany by ;^749,878, from
Great Britain by ^^505, 749, from India by ;^30i,385,

1909.

1910, Difference.

£ £

3,404,945

3,858,553 + 453,607

688,963
2,503,076
1,086,812
2,260,872
2,110,340

1,042,246 + 353,283

2,967,335 + 464,259
1,442,815 + 356,003

2,515,631 + 254,759
1,954,7^0- 155,640

CHILE

197

from France by ;^277,28o, and from Peru, Italy,
and Spain to a lesser extent. Argentina sent less
by i;"234, 193, and Australia less by ^97,280 than
in 1909.

Turning now to the exportation, we find from
the excellently compiled official statistics the
following differences in the value of the principal
exports for the two years : —

1909.

1910.

Difference.

£

£

£

Salitre (nitrate of

soda)

. 15,815,263

17,675,006 +

',859,743

Bar copper .

957.179

898,692 -

58,487

Iodine

417,889

512,387 +

94,498

Copper ore .

520,720

480,747-

39.973

Wheat

1,065,247

504,401 -

560,846

Oats .

275,783

252,040-

23.743

Barley

330.521

161,661 -

168,860

Hides .

127,958

246,954 +

118,996

Chinchilla skins
(71,963 skins)

53.972
(52,363 skin

^J 86,399 +

32,427

Chile exported in 1910 to the United States
more by i^i, 036,076 than in 1909, and amongst
other nations whose imports of Chilian products
increased were Spain by ^301,219, Bolivia by
^203,137, and Cape Colony by ^^141,830. Great
Britain tooki^7o,504 less, Germany ;^i3i,8i6 and
Holland ^^186,416 less than in 1909.

In 1909, of the ^18,869,959 of Chilian im-
ports Great Britain supplied by far the greater
part (^^6,368,549), and the percentages of the

198 THE TEN REPUBLICS

trade enjoyed by the five leading countries were :
England, 33*4; Germany, 23*9; United States,
io"o; Argentina, 6*9; and France, 5*9. Of the
principal imports : in textiles nearly one-half came
from Great Britain ; in mineral products Germany
had a slight lead over Great Britain ; in coal, oil,
etc.. Great Britain stood first with a lead of about
^300,000 worth over the United States. With
the exception of small quantities from Belgium
and France practically all the machinery imported
came from three countries: Germany, ;^824,547 ;
Great Britain, ;^795,564; United States, ;^279,295.
Nearly two - thirds of the animal products,
i^i, 277,360, came from the Argentine Republic.

The exports for 1909, amounting to ;^22, 062,953^,
were divided in the percentage of 42*1, 22*3, 18*4,
and 4*9 between Great Britain, Germany, United
States and France in the order given. Of the
exports of the mineral products (which amounted
altogether to ^^17,389,992, or nearly three-quarters
of the entire export trade) ;^6,468,36i went to Great
Britain, ^^4, 230,805 to Germany, and ^3,888,348
to the United States.

The national revenue is derived mainly from ex-
port duties on nitrate, amounting annually to about
five millions sterling, receipts from railways,
customs duties, and the alcohol tax. Import duties
are imposed, specific and ad valorem^ the per-
centage chargeable varying with the class of goods.
It is impossible to formulate any general law for
the classification that is adopted, but, roughly

CHILE 199

speaking, Chilian industries are protected by an
average rate of 25 per cent., while, in accordance
with what is a very prevalent custom in South
America, no charge is made upon things such as
railway material and machinery, which are deemed
essential to the development of the country.

The credit of Chile stands high. The last loan
offered in London this year was subscribed for
fifteen times over. In only one point does Chile
compare unfavourably with her neighbours, and
that is in her currency, which is mostly paper.^
Several attempts have been made to place it
upon a gold basis, but they have ended in failure,
partly owing to financial stringency, and partly
to the disinclination of the agricultural and land-
owning classes to sacrifice a monetary system
which permits of their satisfying those whom they
employ with a cheap dollar, and partly through
the bad banking laws. While the Government
of Chile has done everything possible to convert
this paper money, it has not yet succeeded. The
Government has ^^9,000,000 of gold in British
and German banks, and $50,000,000 worth of
mortgage bonds as a fund to redeem the paper
money of the country, and in time it is hoped
that the redemption will be accomplished.

From what has been said about the revenue

^ Chile's monetary unit, nominally the gold ^cso of i8 pence, is
in reality the paper peso of about ii\d. in value, hut there is a
gold coinage of 5, 10 and 20 pesos in existence, though practically
7vithdraivn from circulation. The silver peso and 5, 10, and
20 centavos pieces are also seldom used.

200 THE TEN REPUBLICS

derived from the nitrate industry its importance
will be appreciated. The nitrate fields, which are
found in the rainless desert in the north of Chile,
extend for more than four hundred miles parallel
to the sea.

'' The region presents the strange contradiction
of furnishing the world's fertilizer, that gives life to
arid lands wherever applied, yet yielding no kindly
fruits itself. The elixir of other lands which lies
within its strata vouchsafes no sustenance for its
own soil ; no living thing can find nourishment
there. The nitrate zone is one of the barren places
of the earth. But the climate is perfect."

Chile now extracts from the nitrate district about
six times as large an annual output as it yielded
when in other hands, but she has little fear that
the deposits will be soon exhausted, as estimates
show that at the present rate of production they
will last 136 years. By 1925 nitrate will have
yielded the State eighty millions sterling.

The Chilians have taken all possible steps to
develop the nitrate industry ; new beds have been
discovered in the provinces of Antofagasta and
Atacama, and the supply should now be equal to
the demand for many years to come — the more so
as the Government is fully aware of the issues at
stake, and may be trusted to prevent the dissipa-
tion of its most valuable resources. Indeed,
special laws have been passed for the protection of
this seemingly valueless desert, and those who
wish to establish themselves upon it must be pro-

CHILE 20I

perly accredited. The nitrate industry has been
developed mainly by British capital, although the
Germans and the Chilians have co-operated. The
nitrate producers have formed a protective Asso-
ciation. This Association at one time limited
the output of each of its members to a fixed pro-
portion, and so maintained prices ; possibly it
may do so again, but at present it is mainly con-
cerned with advertising the valuable qualities of
its products. The salt is used not only in agricul-
ture, but also in the manufacture of explosives, and
among the by-products of the industry is iodine.

As the nitrate fields lie at a considerable eleva-
tion, and between fifty and a hundred miles inland,
it has been necessary to build short railways to
put them in communication with the sea. These
railways, and the ports which have been built on
the coast to transact their business, may be re-
garded as part of the plant of the nitrate in-
dustry.

Chile, it is true, produces coal, but as her out-
put is taken by the railways, ports, and southern
industries in the neighbourhood of the mines, the
nitrate companies usually import what they require
from England and Australia— the more so as
freight charges are low, since the ships which fetch
the nitrate are glad of a cargo. A special type of
business is thus developed in the northern ports,
of which the best known are Iquique and Antofa-
gasta. The former does a large export trade, for,
though the harbour is little more than an open

202 THE TEN REPUBLICS

roadstead the hills on the coast and the island of
Serrano render it safe.

Antofagasta does not owe its prosperity to any
one business. It serves a nitrate district ; it con-
tains smelting works for the neighbouring silver
mines, and as the seaport of the Oruro railway it
handles the trade of south-west Bolivia.

From the point of view of those occupied in
mining, the product next in importance to nitrate
of soda is copper, which was exported to the value
of nearly two millions sterling in 1908. At one
time, indeed, some two-thirds of the world's out-
put was derived from Chile, and the discovery of
a mummy almost turned into copper in an old
mine in the province of Antofagasta points to the
antiquity of the industry. Various causes have
contributed to its stationary condition of recent
years; other countries have largely increased their
output ; the metal has fallen in price ; some of the
richest mines have been worked out ; and the
labourers have been attracted elsewhere as the
nitrate business has developed. Chile's output of
copper has actually remained about the same,
though relatively to the output of other countries
it has decreased. Copper is found in the provinces
of Santiago and Valparaiso, but most of the mines
are situated in the north, which also supplies a
considerable quantity of borate of lime.

Coal, on the other hand, is a product of Concep-
cion and other southern districts. Over a million
tons were mined last year. The mineral yielded

CHILE 203

is a lignite somewhat deficient in caloric qualities
and thus competing at some disadvantage with
imported coal. The country's consumption of coal
in 1910 was two and a half million tons, of which
one and a half million tons were imported.

But the main occupation of the population of
Chile is agriculture and kindred pursuits. The
sub-tropical regions have a light rainfall, a genial
summer, and facilities for irrigation, which make
them suitable for fruit farms, and, further south,
wheat is grown with conspicuous success. Wheat,
indeed, still ranks among the exports, and in pro-
cess of time, when North America comes to need
all the cereals it produces, Chile may find a large
market in Europe for such as she can spare. At
one time she sent wheat to Argentina and as far
north as California, but her methods were too
primitive for her to hold her own with those
countries when they began to compete with her.

A large and growing trade is also done in wine,
much of which is exported to Perii and Bolivia.
The vine — according to experts— requires "a
winter sufficiently cold to give the vegetation a
rest, a spring sufficiently early and mild to help
along the budding and effervescence of the plant,
and a summer sufficiently long and warm properly
to ripen the fruit." All these advantages are
found in Chile, which looks forward in the future
to good results from viticulture. The progress of
the mining interest has indirectly benefited the
agriculturalists. Dairy farms have increased with

204 THE TEN REPUBLICS

the growing demand for butter and cheese, and
the fruit-growers are assured of a larger and more
constant market. Cattle and sheep are raised for
home consumption, but it is unlikely even with
increased transportation facilities that a large
export trade will be built up in these commodities
in the teeth of Argentine competition.

The manufactures of Chile are practically con-
fined to those for which she herself produces the
raw materials. With the assistance of a high
tariff they do well. In the cattle-raising and
forest districts of the south it has paid to estab-
lish tanning industries, and they in their turn
have fostered the production of boots and saddlery ;
moreover, considerable capital is employed in the
making of furniture, barrels, etc. In the fruit-
growing districts are found factories for the tin-
ning and preserving of their produce, while in the
mining region of the north some attention is
given to the manufacture of chemicals.

In the main the characteristics of the Chilian
of to-day are hard-headedness, determination and
energy, qualities not usually regarded as inherent
in a Latin race ; and having in mind the progress
and reforms already accomplished by virtue of
these traits and the elements of wealth which yet,
lying dormant in the soil, await their application,
it is hazarding nothing to prognosticate for Chile
a glorious future, and that not too remote.

CHAPTER IX

COLOMBIA

Strictly speaking, ^'Colombia" should be the
title applied to the whole vast continent discovered
by Columbus. On his final voyage, after dis-
covering Cape Gracias a Dios (''Thanks be to
God") on September 14th, 1502, he sailed along
what we now know to have been the coast of
''Colombia" proper, but made no attempt at
colonization. The King of Spain granted it to
the explorer, Alonso de Ojeda, in 1506, but the real
importance of the country was not revealed until
the interior — Bogota — was discovered (1536-7) by
Jimenez de Quesada, a far greater man than
Ojeda, whose discoveries and exploits rank with
those of Cortes in Mexico and of Pizarro in Peru,
and in memory of whose Spanish birthplace
(Granada, Andalusia, Spain) the name of New
Granada was given to the territory that we now
know as Colombia. The country remained under
Spanish rule until, three centuries afterwards, the
citizens of Bogota rose against their Spanish
masters and deposed the viceroy, Borbon. It was
then that the celebrated Simon Bolivar came to
the front, and took the lead in the long and

205

2o6 THE TEN REPUBLICS

chequered War of Independence that culminated
in the utter overthrow of the Spanish dominion
over New Granada, which included within its limits
Venezuela and Ecuador, in the great battle of
Boyaca in 1819, and in the establishment of a
union between the three divisions of the country,
with Bolivar as first President of *' Greater
Colombia."

Bolivar's work threatened to be short-lived,
for after his death in 1830 both Venezuela and
Ecuador (who had joined the union in 1829)
seceded, and the country, after several changes
of title, became finally known as The Republic
of Colombia by a constitution adopted in 1886
on the lines of a republican unitary form of
Government. The final secession of Panama in
1903 involved a loss not only of territory but of
pecuniary advantages, from the concessions in
connection with the Canal Zone, that Colombia
could ill afford.

Situated in the extreme north-west corner of
South America, and with outlets both to the
Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, Colombia
embraces an extent of 438,436 square miles and
has a population of about 4,320,000. But whereas
this area is equal to about three and a half times
the area of the United Kingdom, its population
works out at only about ten inhabitants per
square mile, as compared with three hundred and
forty per square mile in the United Kingdom or
thirty pg* square mile in the United States of

COLOMBIA

207

America. The national demand is, therefore,
for more people, as it is also, in varying degrees,
with all the Latin-American Republics. No

C A R I B B E\A N

doubt the increased trade facilities that will be
afforded Colombia by the opening of the Panama
Canal will help to attract the immigrants she so
urgently requires.

Colombia has a great many rivers which form

2o8 THE TEN REPUBLICS

part of the vast watersheds of the Orinoco and
of the Amazon. Both the Orinoco and the
Amazon flow partly through Colombian lands,
but they really belong, the one to Venezuela and
the other to Brazil; however, the number of rivers
of Colombia emptying into the Orinoco is quite
large, and some of them are mighty streams,
such as the Meta, the Vichada and the Arauca,
and it is no exaggeration to say that probably
there are more than thirty or forty of these large
rivers, and possibly a hundred small rivers,
flowing from Colombian plains into the Orinoco.
The same may be said with regard to the Amazon.
In short, Colombia has a very important share in
two of the greatest watersheds of the world.

The principal Colombian rivers are the Atrato,
which empties into the Gulf of Uraba, and the
Magdalena, which flows into the Caribbean Sea,
250 or 300 miles to the east of the Atrato. In
connection with the former it may be mentioned
that owing to the proximity of its mouth to
the Isthmus of Panama competent engineers
claim that it would serve as a base for an inter-
oceanic canal between the Atrato and the Pacific,
as there is a small river, not far from the Atrato,
that empties into the Pacific.

In consequence of the great differences in

altitude that exist, the climates of the different

parts vary considerably from tropical to temperate,

>" and there is a consequent variety of agricultural

and forest products. In the hot lands, at the

COLOMBIA 209

level of the sea, or up to 2000 feet or so, all the
products of the Tropical Zone are obtainable.
Some of them, like cacao and rubber, require
special temperature and moisture, so that other
conditions than merely that of altitude are essen-
tial to their cultivation. Coffee grows at from
3000 to 4500 feet. It may be produced at other
altitudes, but not profitably. The coffee crop
of the Republic yields annually about 600,000
bags, mainly for European and North American
markets. In the uplands and altitudes beyond
7000 feet European fruits and cereals are pro-
duced ; and with an efficient railway system
Colombia could not only supply enough wheat
and barley for her own consumption, but she
could also export them. The cultivation of
bananas has been greatly stimulated by Govern-
ment measures with regard to concessions of
lands for this purpose as well as to the develop-
ment of existing lands by extensive irrigation.

Bananas can be grown all over the lowlands ;
they are only a valuable article of commerce
when near the coast. The commercial import-
ance of Santa Marta, on the Caribbean coast,
and north of the great coastal banana-raising
plain, depends almost entirely upon its large
and increasing shipments of this fruit to the
United States. The Santa Marta Railway, which
runs through this region, is responsible for most
of the transportation, having carried in one year
50,000 tons of this fruit. Round the basins of the
p

2IO THE TEN REPUBLICS

rivers Magdalena (a stream which is navigable for
nine hundred miles of its course) and Sinu there
is another very fertile region where rubber and
cacao as well as bananas can easily be grown,
while coal and petroleum are only awaiting
capital for development in the same district.
These districts are, too, the great cattle-rearing
districts, though the entire country is suitable
for stock-raising. The eastern plains of the
Meta, the Orinoco, and other rivers towards the
east which are much larger in extent, are as
well suited to cattle-raising as the plains of the
Magdalena. Rubber also is on the upgrade,
and the production of tobacco, much of which
now goes to Germany, can undoubtedly be
greatly increased.

But Colombia's chief source of wealth should
be in her minerals and precious stones, and it
seems extraordinary that they have hitherto been
so little exploited. Up to 1845 or 1846, that is
to say, before the discoveries in California,
Colombia was considered one of the largest
gold-producing countries in the world. It stands
on record that during Spanish rule the taxes on
gold showed that up to 18 10 the production of
gold and silver, principally gold, in Colombia had
amounted to more than a thousand million dollars,
and it should be borne in mind that many evasions
of the tax, such as clandestine shipments, must
have taken place. Emeralds, platinum, coal,
copper and iron are known to exist in large

COLOMBIA 211

quantities, but for some reason the capital neces-
sary for their working has not been forthcoming,
though as regards the influx of capital the outlook
is now much more promising.

The great gold-bearing districts lie in the
Choco region and in Antioquia, and between the
Cauca and the Magdalena. The mines of Mar-
moto, Riosucio, and the Choco district are said to
have deposits equal to those of the Transvaal,
whilst new discoveries have been made on the
Magdalena river, and gold nuggets are found in
the beds of all the rivers flowing to the Pacific.

The famous emerald mines are situated at Muzo,
seventy-five miles from Bogota, and have an extent
of 140,000 acres. The scarcity of this precious
stone in other parts of the world tends naturally
to enhance the value of these mines in Colombia.

Copper ore is known to be abundant, and it is
estimated that the output of platinum would rival
that of Russia.

Coal deposits are very large ; they extend from
the gulf of Maracaibo, on the Venezuelan coast,
to the Pacific, where out-croppings are found
not far north of Buenaventura ; furthermore, the
mountains near Bogota, covering an area of at
least two or three hundred miles, are rich in coal,
as well as salt.

Petroleum and rock-salt deposits are very con-
siderable. The Government holds a monopoly
of salt-mining, the net revenues in 1908 to the
Government from the Zipaquira mines, near

212 THE TEN REPUBLICS

Bogota, being between li to 2 millions sterling.
In fact, rock-salt mines have hitherto formed one
of the greatest sources of the wealth of the country.
Iron and copper ores are abundant, but remain
unworked to a very great extent owing to lack of
transportation facilities, a defect that has retarded
the development of the whole country.

Government concessions have been granted with
regard to the free importation of machinery and
implements necessary to certain manufacturing
industries, and it may be said that all manufac-
turing industries have benefited by the Govern-
ment's consistent policy towards their establish-
ment and development. The textile, hat, sugar-
cane and flour milling industries are the most
important, though the latter's output has not
hitherto been sufficient for the home market.

After exhibiting in 1908 an advance of half a
million sterling on its trade of 1907, Colombia's
foreign commerce in 1909 increased to a total
value of ;^5, 2 14,878, represented by ;^2,ii2,209 of
imports and ^^"3, 102,669 of exports, giving the
encouraging trade-balance in the Republic's favour
of nearly i^i,ooo,ooo. The flourishing ports of
Barranquilla, Cartagena and Buenaventura were
a long way ahead in totals of foreign trade, though
as regards export trade alone Santa Marta, Tumaco
and Cucuta competed favourably with Buenaven-
tura. While the exports improved by some
i^40,ooo as compared with the 1908 output, the
imports decreased by no less than ;^6oo,ooo.

COLOMBIA 213

The principal exports from the United States of
America were iron and steel manufactures (chiefly
machinery), cotton goods, bread stuff, lard, medi-
cine, and oils. Colombia sent, in return, coffee,
hides and skins, rubber, bananas, vegetable ivory,
etc. Great Britain is, however, Colombia's princi-
pal customer. Her large investments in railway
enterprise have secured her the supply of much of
the railway material, though on the lines controlled
by the Government preference is shown for Ameri-
can locomotives and equipment. A great deal of
the cotton-goods trade is held by Manchester,
where previously the United States had been
supreme. Germany's interest in Colombian trade
is to be noted ; her permanent stake in the country
(as in any of the South American countries) is
negligible compared with that of Great Britain,
but she offers a considerable market for Colombian
tobacco, hides, dye-woods, and a number of mis-
cellaneous products. France, too, has trade
amounting to a considerable sum annually with
Colombia, supplying chiefly wines, liquors, olive
oils, etc.

With regard to the importation of machinery,
that which is considered necessary to the de-
velopment of the country's resources is in many
cases admitted duty free. These are not special
concessions, but benefit every importer. The
supply of mining machinery is shared by Great
Britain and the United States, being distributed
mainly according to the nationality of the owners

214 THE TEN REPUBLICS

of the mines. American manufacturers are obtain-
ing a hold upon the market for agricultural and
milling machinery, but in the sugar and coffee
industries European machinery is most generally
used, though American competition in this direc-
tion may be anticipated.

In 1909-10 Colombia made satisfactory progress,
but development is far too slow. In July of the
first-named year the President gave Congress a
clear exposition of the financial position of the
Republic, and at the same time introduced sweep-
ing economic reforms. Trade monopolies having
been abolished by a decree of April, 1909, great
relief was thereby afforded to commerce, though
the State revenue failed to benefit. The President
urged upon Congress the conclusion of reciprocity,
boundary and arbitration treaties with Venezuela
and Peru. Similar treaties had, in 1908, been
effected with Great Britain, France and Brazil.
Foreign capital is essential to this otherwise
thriving community, and the outlook is very
bright now that the era of war and internal dis-
sensions appears to have given place to peace and
goodwill both at home and with all nations.

The great obstacle to Colombia's development
has been the difficulty of internal communication.
The railway system is quite inadequate, and the
resources and finances of the country have not
permitted, until recently, of the introduction of any
systematic policy into railroad construction. In
1909 only 510 miles of railway line were in work-

COLOMBIA

215

ing order, none of the stretches exceeding ahundred
miles in length, with perhaps a further hundred
in course of construction. Of the existing lines,
60 per cent, are worked by British companies, the
remainder being owned either by the State or by
native concerns. Unfortunately, no uniformity
of gauge has been observed, both the yard and
metric gauge having been used indiscriminately.
The short line on the Sabana, connecting Bogota
with Facatativa, is the most important and the
most profitable. Bogota lies in a somewhat
isolated position, and is difficult of access, but
in 1909 a freight and passenger service was estab-
lished between the city and Girardot, situated a
little to the west, which has facilitated the commu-
nication of Bogota with the outside world. Con-
gress has recently authorized a project for the
cutting through of the bar at the entrance to the
Magdalena, which will throw open that river to
ocean traffic, and it is hoped that this will stimu-
late railway enterprise.

The fact, too, that concessions covering 1570
miles have recently been granted by the Govern-
ment points to the attention that is now beginning
to be paid to the development and extension of
means of communication, while the modifications
that have been made in the customs tariff on
materials for railroad construction are proof of
Colombia's recognition of what may be called her
chief need.

Bogota, the capital of Colombia, is a mountain

2i6 THE TEN REPUBLICS

city, standing 8616 feet above sea-level on the
high inland plain of Bogota that lies, to quote a
correspondent's description, "like a huge, high-
rimmed and flat-bottomed bowl " about midway
between where the Eastern Cordillera diverges
from the north-west and middle ranges of the
Andes and where it enters Venezuela. Owing to
the height at which the city is situated, its climate
is cool, the mean annual temperature being about
60 degrees Fahrenheit. It has a population of
125,000. Bogota is a mixture of the very old
and the very new. Among its many interesting
buildings are the Astronomical Observatory —
after that at Quito the highest in the world — and
the School of Philosophy and Letters, dating
from the Spanish Conquest in 1553, and proudly
described by the Bogotanos as ''Ha gloria de la
patriay "Bogota to-day is without doubt,"
writes Mr. Cunninghame Graham, "the greatest
literary centre south of Panama." From the
church of Guadalupe across the Savannah of
Bogota, a fertile plain of 330 square miles, one
of the most exquisite views in the world is to
be obtained, which calls to mind a description of
the Colombian capital as "the Athens of South
America."

After Bogotd, the largest cities are Medellin
with 50,000 inhabitants, Barranquilla, 40,000,
Bucaramanga, 30,000, and Cartagena, 27,000.

Education under Spanish rule was largely in
the hands of the Roman Catholic Church, which

COLOMBIA 217

seems to have done its work well in New Granada,
where at one time there were twenty-three colleges.
Here, too, were erected the first observatory and
the first public library of the New World. The
Republican Government is now continuing the
work of the Church. There is a Department of
Public Instruction, and in 1909 statistics show
that 235,000 pupils were being educated at nearly
3000 schools. Industrial night schools have been
established in the larger towns.

To encourage and improve national education
special officials have been appointed to study the
systems of other countries. By a recent decree
additional normal schools for males have been
established at Medellin, Manizales and Ibagiie,
and for females at San Gil and Neiva. In all
national and departmental schools a course of six
years' study must be completed before the degree
of Doctor of Medicine or Surgery can be obtained,
but doctors, dentists and surgeons holding degrees
from foreign faculties are free to practise their
professions without any examination, whilst foreign
practitioners holding no degree may submit them-
selves for examination before the Faculty of
Medicine at the University of Bogota.

As with most of the South American Republics,
Colombia is administered by a National Congress
composed of a Senate and a House of Representa-
tives, the former comprising three members for
each department and the latter one representative
for every 50,000 inhabitants. The Senators are

2i8 THE TEN REPUBLICS

elected indirectly for a term of four years, and the
other Chamber by the popular vote for a similar
period. Congress elects the President, who holds
office for four years at a salary of ;^2400 per
annum, the six members of his Cabinet receiving
salaries of ;^i200 each.

Military service is compulsory, and while there
is a standing army of only 6000 men, there is an
estimated war-footing of 120,000. Last year the
President invited a War Commission from Chile
to meet at Bogota and discuss the questions of
establishing military schools and placing the
Colombian army on an improved basis.

CHAPTER X

ECUADOR

Early history shows Ecuador to have been the
kingdom of the Caras, a Quechuan race which
could boast an advanced civilization whereof
some few traces remain to this day. The Caran
dynasty seems to have endured for more than
four hundred years, until the fifteenth king,
defending his country against the invading Inca
Huayna Capac, fell in battle, 1487. The region
of Ecuador then became a separate Inca posses-
sion, ruled, upon the death of Huayna Capac, by
his son, Atahuallpa, between whom and his half-
brother, Huascar, Emperor of Cuzco (Peru), a
war broke out in which the former was success-
ful. But the fruits of victory were withheld from
Atahuallpa, for in 1532, almost immediately after
his defeat of Huascar, he was taken prisoner by the
marauding Pizarro and subsequently put to death.
Spanish dominion commenced with the found-
ing, in 1534, of Quito, the present capital, where-
after, for nearly three hundred years, Ecuador was
administered, first as the province of Quito by
Pizarro's brother, Gonzalo, and, after his execu-
tion, as a Presidency by the Viceroys of Peru, in
much the same oppressive fashion as the other
Spanish colonies, and, in 1809, with the same result.

219

220 THE TEN REPUBLICS

The first revolutionary movements were unsuccess-
ful, but on May 24th, 1822, General Sucre won
a decisive victory over the Royal forces at
Pichincha, and a few days afterwards Ecuador was
declared part of the Republic of Colombia. In
1835, however, she seceded and assumed her present
position as an independent sovereign nation.

The political history of the Republic of Ecuador
is largely a record of unscrupulous or incompe-
tent government relieved by periods of honest
and occasionally capable administration, changes
in the Presidency being almost invariably effected
until 1890 by plots and revolutions. In 1875
Garcia Moreno, a priest-ruled but otherwise ex-
cellent President, was assassinated in Quito, and
it is probable that by his death the country
suffered a severe set-back. But in 1896, anp
again in 1907, General Eloy Alfaro, a wise and
energetic statesman, was elected to the Presi-
dency, and his administration has been signally
successful in many directions.

The name of Ecuador is significant of its geo-
graphical position, for the Equator traverses its
northern provinces only a few miles above its
capital city. The country is bounded on the
west by the Pacific Ocean, on the north by
Colombia, on the east by Brazil, and on the south
by Peru, but its precise southern limits cannot be
defined for the reason that a boundary dispute
with the last-named nation, involving an enormous
tract of territory, is still pending.

ECUADOR

Physiographically, Ecuador partakes of many
of the attributes of other Andean Republics,

having, on the west, a strip of low-lying coast
backed by a twin range of lofty mountains which
enclose a high plateau crossed at fairly regular

222 THE TEN REPUBLICS

intervals by niidos or knots of peaks. These
parallel chains have been called "an avenue of
volcanoes," for each contains at lea&t ten peaks
of volcanic origin, two of which, Cotopaxi (19,600
feet) and Sangay (17,464 feet), are in a constant
state of activity. Chimborazo, 20,500 feet, the
most northerly summit of Ecuador, is not con-
sidered to belong to the Andes proper. In the
central district of the country, between the ramifi-
cations of the eastern range, are hot lowlands
furrowed by the valleys of small rivers, and the
eastern section is occupied by plains thickly
covered with virgin forests, interspersed with
grass lands and low hills, all considerably above
the level of the sea. The interesting Galapagos
Islands in the Pacific, the nearest of which lies
some 140 miles from the coast, belong politically
to Ecuador.

The area of the country is officially estimated
at 276,000 square miles, including the Galapagos
Islands, which together would cover rather over
5400 square miles. These fifteen small units of
Equatorian maritime territory — something of a
white elephant to their political owners — occupy
a strategical position commanding much of the
west coast and are coveted by more than one great
Power. A recent offer from the United States to
lease them for 99 years provoked, when submitted
to the people, an angry popular demonstration.
Then there is the territory in dispute with Peru,
whose exact extent is unknown. It probably

ECUADOR 223

exceeds 150,000 square miles of rich rubber and
forest lands, comprised within the rough triangle
formed by theriversYapura and Maraiion (Amazon)
from their confluence to their respective head-
waters. This tract has been in dispute since 182 1,
when Ecuador formed part of the Republic of
Colombia, and at present there seems to be little
prospect of an immediate amicable settlement of
the question.

For administrative purposes Ecuador is divided
into sixteen provinces and a territory (the Gala-
pagos Islands). The provinces are, in geographical
order from north to south : Esmeraldas, Carchi,
Imbabura, Manabi, Pichincha, Le6n,Tunguragua,
Rios, Bolivar, Azuay, Loja, El Oro, Caiiar, Guayas,
Chimborazo, and Oriente (the great eastern pro-
vince, forming part of the disputed territory) ; they
are subdivided into cantons, and these into parishes.

The constitution of Ecuador is that of a cen-
tralized Republic, power being distributed among
the independent legislative, executive and judi-
ciary branches. The President is elected by
direct vote for a term of four years with the usual
proviso as to re-election, and receives a salary of
;6^2400. The National Congress consists of two
Houses, the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies,
the former composed of thirty-two and the latter
of forty-two members, both Houses being elected
by direct vote, which may be exercised by all male
citizens over eighteen years of age who can read
and write. Each province is represented by two

224 THE TEN REPUBLICS

senators, and there is one diputado to every
30,000 citizens. The President appoints a cabinet
of five ministers. There is also a Council of
State composed of the five Cabinet Ministers and
of seven councillors elected by Congress. Quito,
the capital city, is the seat of the Supreme Court,
and judges and magistrates are elected by Con-
gress for a term of six years. The provinces are
administered by governors and the cantons by
magistrates appointed by and responsible to the
President, and the parishes elect their own council-
lors by direct vote.

The natural resources of Ecuador cannot be
gauged even approximately, but there is no reason
to believe that they are greatly inferior to those of
Peru or Bolivia. There are gold-washings and gold
mines in the Guayaquil and Esmeraldas districts,
though the emeralds which gave the latter pro-
vince its name are now seldom found. In 1905
one mine in Esmeraldas produced gold to the
value of over ;^i8,ooo, though in 1908 this was
reduced to little over ;^iooo. From the port of
Guayaquil, however, gold was exported in the latter
year to the value of nearly ^37,500. It is practi-
cally certain that the Equatorian Andes are rich
in gold and silver, and copper, zinc, iron, silver
and platinum also exist, but the mining industry
is very little developed. Coal of a lignite quality
occurs in several districts, but it is to be feared
that it would not pay to mine it. Petroleum is
also found and is used in a crude state for fuel.

ECUADOR 225

Agriculture in general, though the chief industry,
suffers like the mining industry from lack of
machinery, labour, capital, and means of trans-
port. Cocoa is by far the most important product
of the country, and for this the soil of the valleys
is particularly suitable. Tagua^ or vegetable ivory
nuts, used in France and Germany for the manu-
facture of buttons, is Ecuador's next most valuable
product, followed by coffee and rubber. Sugar
cane is cultivated and a little sugar is exported ;
rice is grown, though not in sufficient quantities
for home needs, and the same may be said of
wheat. Fruits, principally bananas, are exported
to some extent, and the export of hides is on the
increase. A product of some importance is the
fine straw from which are woven what are known
in England as Panama hats, but which were
originally made in Manabi. This straw is the
raw material of an industry flourishing at present,
but dependent to a great extent on the caprice of
fashion.

Guayaquil, the busy chief port of Ecuador,
through which passes ninety per cent, of the im-
ports and nearly eighty per cent, of the exports of
the country, is situated some forty miles up the
Guayas, the largest river on the west coast. It
has an urban population of 120,000 inhabitants.

Quito, the capital, is connected by rail with
Guayaquil, and stands at a height of 9340 feet
above sea-level in the midst of a fertile and tem-
perate plateau. It claims to have 100,000 in-

Q

226 THE TEN REPUBLICS

habitants, possesses several fine churches, and is
one of the oldest and most interesting cities in
South America.

Nearly all the important cities of Ecuador are
situated on the Andean tableland, at an average
height of 8600 feet, and if their appearance is poor
and unattractive the blame must be laid upon the
insecurity of their sites in a region so exposed to
earthquakes and landslips. Riobamba, eighty-five
miles east and north of Quito, was destroyed with
thousands of its inhabitants in 1797, and subse-
quently rebuilt in a less dangerous position. It
is to-day an ecclesiastical and educational centre,
with a population of some 20,000. Cuenca, the
third most populous city in Ecuador (45,000 in-
habitants), lies to the south in a fertile basin
watered by the Paute. Sugar is grown in the dis-
trict, and the city has several refineries. Lata-
cunga, near the peak of Chimborazo, has a popu-
lation of 10,000 ; and Esmeraldas, in the north, is
an important port and the centre of a rapidly
developing district. Other chief ports are Puerto
Bolivar, Manta, and Bahia de Caraquez. The
population of the entire country slightly exceeds
2,000,000, but no trustworthy figures are obtain-
able. The mestizo class largely predominates, and
the huge Oriente Province is almost entirely in-
habited by uncivilized Indians, Jibaros, Zaparos,
and Piojes.

The export figures for 1909 show a slight de-
crease of trade as compared with those of 1908,

ECUADOR

227

due principally to a decline both in value and
amount exported of cocoa, and to the fact that in
1908 an unusually large amount of gold specie was
shipped. On the other hand, the export of vege-
table ivory was nearly three times that of 1908.
Imports also were reduced, as a consequence of
over-importation in the previous year. The total
figures for 1909 were : Exports, ;63,ooo,62i ; im-
ports, ;^i, 870,424, and the balance of trade in
favour of Ecuador was, therefore, ;^i, 126,377.

The subjoined table compares the export trade
of the last two years for which details are avail-
able ; —

I

908.

1909

Tons.

Value.

Tons.

* Value.

Cocoa

32,119

^2,087,742

31,949

.^I

,757,176

Vegetable Ivory

' 10,363

1 60,046

18,620

471,667

Straw Hats

159,857

—

23',7I5

Rubber .

402

120,712

514

174,855

Coffee

3,787

113,616

3,420

116,286

Gold Specie, etc

—

355,047

—

140,000

Hides

766

38,802

889

46,238

Toquilla Straw

97

18,091

127

16,745

Fruits

10,857

—

12,734

Various

—

24,658

—

33,205

^3,089,428

;^3,ooo,62i

Fra.nce was the greatest consumer of Equatorian
products in 1909, taking goods (almost exclusively
cocoa) to the value of ;^892, 161, as compared with
;^i, 010,577 in 1908. The next most important
customer was the United States, with ^^683, 229,
as against ;^774,282 in the previous year ; Ger-
many, which in 1908 consumed products to the
value of only ^198,356, occupied third place in

228 THE TEN REPUBLICS

1909 with i^3 1 5, 599, while Great Britain's importa-
tion fell from ;^352,288 to ^250,147.

In 1909 Ecuador imported from Great Britain
goods to the value of ^^629,965, as against ^^720,482
in 1908 ; from the United States ^^^479,569, as com-
pared with ^409,769 in the previous year ; from
Germany ;^334,686, representing a decrease of
^95,137; and from France ^^122, 087, as against
;^i47,722 in 1908. The principal items were :
Silk fabrics and general textiles, ;^497,923 ; food
products, i^2i5,220; gold and silver, ;^ 170, 600 ;
clothing, ;^I39,3I4 ; ironware, ;^i 19,362; wines
and liquors, ;^65,095 ; machinery, ^^68,799; and
drugs and medicines, ;^38,240.

The financial situation of Ecuador is notoriously
not of the happiest. The Budgets of recent years
have invariably shown deficits, and the Govern-
ment has for a long time been embarrassed by the
need of funds for necessary undertakings. The
service of some of the debts is still unpaid for 1909,
and, in addition, the public indebtedness has
been increased by loans which could not be, or
were not, met out of the corresponding revenues,
and which were consequently added to the burden
of the future. The fiscal situation of the country
urgently needs regularization.

The external debt is as old as the Republic
itself, for Ecuador, when she separated from
Colombia in 1834, was made responsible for a
proportion of the Colombian debt, her share
amounting, with arrears of interest, to ;^2, 108,377.

ECUADOR 229

On June 30th, 1910, the amount in circulation of
the public indebtedness was ;^4,35 1,102, and
though for the service of this debt she has
assigned heavy charges on her revenues, these do
not increase rapidly enough to meet it.

The large item for military expenditure was due
to the anticipated possibility of war with Peru.

The total budgetary revenue was ^^"1,589,011
and total expenditure ;^i,504,795, showing a sur-
plus of ;^84,2i6, but if in the expenditure pay-
ments effected out of the proceeds of loans were
included the result would be a considerable deficit.

Ecuador is one of the few Latin American
countries having a gold standard. Its monetary
unit is the gold condor of 10 sucres, worth £\
sterling. The silver sucre, worth 2s., and its sub-
divisions are legal tender only up to ^i.

Of all the republics of South America, Ecuador
stands most in need of railroads. At present she
has but one of any consequence— the Guayaquil
and Quito Railway, which, starting from Duran,
a city on the river Guayas opposite Guayaquil,
climbs over the western Andean range to Quito, a
distance of 290 miles. The complete line was
opened to traffic in July, 1908, and the cost of
working it is so heavy that up to the present
the receipts have barely exceeded the expenses.
Quito is also to be linked with Bahia de Caraquez
on the coast of the Manabi province, and the con-
struction of the line is advancing. Some twelve
miles have been opened to traffic, and within a

230 THE TEN REPUBLICS

short time a further considerable section will be
ready. The line from Puerto Bolivar to El
Pasaje was found to be in such a bad state that, in
view of the danger of war with Peru, it was
decided to repair it at once.

A line is projected from Manta, on the Manabi
coast, to Santa Ana, passing through the cities of
Montecristo and Puerto Viejo, and President
Alfaro has pointed out the pressing necessity of a
line or lines to open up the great and rich province
of Oriente. The threatened war has interrupted
negotiations for the lines from Huigra to Cuenca
and from Quito to Ibarra and Tulcan, but a pro-
visional contract has been entered into for the
construction of a line from Puerto Bolivar to
Biblian, which would tap a district both rich in
minerals and adapted for agriculture.

A considerable part of the revenue is devoted to
public instruction, and the education of the people
is being greatly improved under the modern
system that has been adopted. In Quito there are
five colleges (including a military college), a
normal institute for girls and another for young
men, a university, schools of medicine, theology
and arts and crafts, a science institute and three
kindergartens. There are altogether more than
1 200 elementary schools, attended by 70,000 pupils.
The State supports or assists young men in
colleges and universities of the United States and
Europe, where they study for the various engineer-
ing professions.

CHAPTER XI

PARAGUAY

Paraguay is one of the two inland countries of
Latin America, Bolivia being the other. It
borders upon Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina,
covers an extent of about 197,000 square miles,
and at the time of the last census, 1908, had a
population of 715,841, being an increase of 133
per cent, since 1887. The climate is sub-tropical,
modified and made healthful by several mountain
chains and an extensive hydrographic system.

Paraguay is magnificently watered, yet few of its
rivers are navigable by vessels of any considerable
draught. While the great river systems of the
Upper Parana and the Paraguay give direct exit
to Argentina and Uruguay, the Paraguay also
runs through the entire length of the Republic.
This great river divides the country into ''Para-
guay Oriental" and ''Paraguay Occidental."
The first-named region enjoys the better climate,
and is well wooded at a good elevation above
sea-level. Occidental or Western Paraguay, more
familiarly known as "The Chaco," is a swampy,
jungly, and, in some parts, almost desert area
mainly inhabited by the Chaco Indians, who, in

231

232 THE TEN REPUBLICS

the twentieth century, continue to be a primitive
and undeveloped race. Lesser rivers are the
Jujuy, Apa, Monday, Tibicuary and Manduvira,
but the navigation of these is not safe at all
seasons.

To the English-born Sebastian Cabot belongs
the credit of having discovered Paraguay, in the
course of his exploration of the upper Parana and
Paraguay rivers in 1526-7. A Spanish settlement
was ultimately established in 1536, en the site of
Asuncion, now the capital of the Republic. The
explorer, De Vaca, appointed by the King of
Spain Governor of the new province (but subject
to the Viceroy of Peru) in 1542, had to travel
130 days in order to reach Asuncion, in that
period exploring upwards of a thousand miles
of trackless territory. It must be understood that,
originally, Paraguay covered a far larger area
than now, including all the territory drained by
the River Plate. Jesuit missionaries began to
arrive toward the close of the sixteenth century,
and did effective missionary and educational work
among the Indians until expelled by decree of the
King of Spain in 1769.

When Argentina broke away from Spain in
1810 and took the title of ''United Provinces of
the Rio de la Plata," it was intended to include
Paraguay in that designation. The Paraguayans
thought otherwise, however, and met and defeated
an army sent against them from Argentina.
They then declared their independence as a

PARAGUAY

233

separate Republic (181 1), adopted a national flag,
and a new constitution, lodging the executive
power in two consuls, was promulgated in 1813 ;
but in 1814 Dr. Francia became Dictator, holding
office until 1840. In 1844 Don Carlos Lopez

was made President, being followed by his son.
Marshal Solano Lopez, in 1862. This ambitious
man speedily plunged his country into one of the
most prolonged and disastrous wars of inodern
times. Allied against Paraguay was the armed
strength of Brazil, the Argentine Republic and

234 THE TEN REPUBLICS

Uruguay, and in the five years 1865-70 the little
Republic's gallant army and fine navy were de-
stroyed, and 100,000 Paraguayans were slain. ^
The struggle only terminated with the death of
Lopez in battle, and the loss of a large slice of
territory yielded to Brazil on the conclusion of
peace in 1870, in addition to which large war
indemnities were imposed. The paralysing effects,
financial and social, of this war are still being felt
in Paraguay, and '^ paralysed Paraguay" has
been the text for many writers. When peace
was proclaimed, out of a population of 1,337,439,
only 221,080 were left, and of these the men
numbered scarcely 29,000. The country had prac-
tically to be entirely reclaimed, and this accounts
for the difficulty the Government has experienced
in attracting colonists, in spite of the advantages
proffered them. Peace being at last arranged, a
fresh constitution reorganized the Government,
and at Christmas, 187 1, Don Jose Jovellanos
became President. With occasional disorders and
spasms of civil war, the affairs of the country
progressed under successive Presidents down to
the beginning of 191 1, when Colonel Jara, the
Minister for War, managed to effect a coitp d'etat
and get himself declared President. He has been
described as " a young man of great energy and
determination, fearless, and with a genius for

1 " No invasion of barbarians such as ravaged Europe in the
early centuries could have wrought more ruin or entailed more
misery. Nothing seemed left."— Lady Susan Townley.

PARAGUAY 235

intrigue." He certainly seems to be gifted with
strength and with considerable ability, and it is
to be hoped that under the new regime a wise
and expansive policy may be maintained.

Of the chief towns, Asuncion, the capital, has
a population of 52,000, Villa Rica, 30,000 ; Con-
cepcion, 25,000 ; Encarnacion, about 8000 ; Caa-
zapa, 7000, and Estanislao, 7000. A pleasing
picture of Asuncion has been given by Lady
Susan Townley, who was there in 1909. "My
first impressions of the gay little capital of
Paraguay," she writes in The Times, ''were of
scent and colour — the scent of orange blossoms
borne on the breeze, the colour of glorious bougain-
villeas tumbling in violent cascades." Satisfactory
evidence of the growth of Asuncion as a port is
derived from the fact that as long ago as 1908,
1320 ships entered and 1184 cleared from its
harbour. There is a weekly steamship service
with Buenos Aires in addition to the ''inter-
mediate boats " of other lines, and this year there
will be through railway communication with
Argentina. The Republic was admitted into
the International Postal Union in 1884, while
already two thousand miles of telegraphs are in
operation and are being extended to the Brazilian
boundary.

Until November, 1910, no budget had been
presented to Congress for the last five years,
and last year's revenue was calculated on the
basis of the amount of taxes collected in 1908.

236 THE TEN REPUBLICS

The revenue for 191 1, derived from import and
export duties, wharf dues, transit dues on foreign
produce, land tax, etc., is estimated at ^^652, 300,
and the expenditure, which provides for ;^i 30,000
for the service of the public debt, i^i 20,000 for
War and Marine, and i^io8,ooo for Interior,
at ^651,550, thus anticipating a surplus of

During 1910 the Government met with punctu-
ality the interest on the National Debt, and has
redeemed a portion of the principal since 1900.
The Republic's liabilities in 1910 were ; —

Loan, 3 per cent .... 803,643
Amount owing to French Bank . 130,300

Floating debt (approximate) . 70,000

1,003,943

But we have also to bear in mind the considerable
amount of paper money in circulation, against
which, on June 30th, 1910, the gold in the Con-
version Chest amounted to 471,000 pesos. ^

It cannot be said, then, considering all she has
gone through, that Paraguay is very seriously em-
barrassed financially. Exports rose to i^i, 027,328
in 1909 and imports to ^757,590, as against
^^773,419 and ^^814,591 respectively in 1908, show-
ing a net increase in trade of ^196,908 and at the
same time the first trade balance in favour of the

^ The value of the g"old peso is the same as that of Argentina,
viz. 4s. The paper peso is worth about 3/^cl.

PARAGUAY 237

Republic for five years. About forty per cent, of
Paraguayan exports consisted of animal products :
hides (;^233,458), dried meat or charqtd {£\Sy^$'j)
and a few consignments of horns.

Paraguay's best customer is Argentina, where
she finds a ready market for her mate (Para-
guayan tea),^ oranges, hides, tobacco, and lumber.
Mate is one of the principal products, some
17,600,000 lb. being treated annually, and half
this amount exported. In 1909, i^i 14,000 was
sent abroad, and by July, 1910, the entire product
had been sold. The quebracho tree comes next
in importance. It grows mainly in the Chaco.
Its very hard wood is used for railway sleepers
and fence posts, but it is chiefly valued for the
tannic properties of its extract, of which, in 1909,
the country prepared and exported ;^i30,49i
worth. Land bearing this tree sells at i^6oo and
upwards per square league. Of timber of all sorts
just short of ;6^200,ooo was exported in the same
year. Tobacco is the next leading crop, the out-
put being estimated at 6,000,000 lb. annually, of
which half is exported and the rest consumed at
home. This industry alone, it has been said,
should suffice to ensure for Paraguay a great
future. The leaf from which the cigars are manu-
factured is of so excellent a quality that, with
more care and skill in their manufacture, Para-
guayan cigars would rival the far-famed

^ Mat^xs the product of an evergreen plant of the Ilex species,
and is the beverage par excellence of all Paraguayans.

238 THE TEN REPUBLICS

** Havana." It having been discovered that the
soil closely resembles that of the '' Vuelta Abajo"
of Cuba, seed from that locality has, in fact, been
introduced, and with complete success. The to-
bacco crop is of three varieties ; the Havana-quality
weed, a strong native tobacco which finds its chief
market in Argentina, and a mild one which is
largely exported to Europe. The total value of
tobacco exported in 1909 was ;^i09,894.

It is also certain that, with more capital and in-
creased transport facilities, cotton will become a
very considerable source of wealth to the country.
As long ago as 1863 there were 58,000,000 plants
under cultivation, and Paraguayan cotton is of a
particularly silky quality. A little rubber is now
exported annually (chiefly to France), though this
industry dates only from 1907. Other products are
essential oils, beer, native whisky, soap, furniture,
leather, and bricks. There is a considerable out-
put of maize, and in 1908 the export of oranges
reached nearly 11,000,000.

The raising of cattle has increased so rapidly on
the fertile pastures that by 1910 there were6,ooo,ooo
head in the country, whereof the home consump-
tion does not exceed eight per cent. The free im-
portation of cattle from Argentina andMattoGrosso
(Brazil) is permitted with the usual restrictions.
There are a number of tanneries, and two large
beef-curing establishments, where nearly 40,000
beasts are annually disposed of.

A powerful stimulus has been given to the cattle-

PARAGUAY 239

raising industry of late years by the influx of
cattlemen from Brazil and Argentina. Much of
the trade in jerked beef is done with Cuba, Brazil,
and Spain, while the hides command such ex-
cellent prices on the European markets that they
constitute the principal export of the country.

Among the minerals found in Paraguay — but,
generally speaking, sadly undeveloped— may be
named quartz, agate, opals, kaolin, iron, copper,
mercury and manganese. Iron is said to be plen-
tiful in the north of the Republic.

A principal article of commerce with the United
States is the oil of petit grain. This is extracted
from the leaves of a native orange tree, and is
used as the basis of various perfumes and in mak-
ing flavouring extracts. In 1909 this commodity
was exported to the value of ^18,490. The export
of oranges, a fruit which grows in profusion and
to perfection in certain districts, amounted in
the same year to ^^53,000.

More railways and more immigrants must be
Paraguay's two principal requirements for some
time to come. Till recently the country possessed
but one railway, less than two hundred miles of
direct line altogether, but soon an extension of
the ''Paraguay Central" will enable the traveller
to board the train at Asuncion and go direct to
Buenos Aires (iioo miles) without changing and
in less than fifty hours. This line will thus enjoy
the unique distinction of being the key to the rich
central regions of South America ; the gauge has

240 THE TEN REPUBLICS

been altered by arrangement with the Argentine
North-Eastern Railway Company and new and
improved rolling stock manufactured by several
British firms. It is hoped, moreover, that the
volume of trade will enable Paraguay to link up
with the railways of Uruguay. When it is stated
that the cost of carriage by water between Asun-
cion and Buenos Aires (a four days' journey) has
been greater than that between the Argentine
capital and Liverpool or Southampton, it will be
understood how much this line means to Para-
guay. Another short railway, some sixty miles
in length, will connect Concepcion with Horqueta
and will greatly accelerate the transport of cattle
and timber.

The development of the Chaco is only in its
first stages. A few years ago the primitive tall-
wheeled ox-cart was the principal means of trans-
port, whereas it now serves as a '^ feeder" for the
light railways. It is noteworthy that the French
local main-line railway is being prolonged from
Resistencia towards the north, with Asuncion, the
capital, as its objective. Traversing as it will the
eastern interior of the Chaco, this line cannot but
benefit the whole industrial outlook, since from it
will flow a system of interlacing lines to open up
a hitherto undeveloped territory.

Immigrants have so far been arriving in Para-
guay only at the rate of about a thousand per
annum, and they make but ij per cent, of the
population. Of this number very few are British

PARAGUAY 241

and the majority Italians and Germans. It is a
significant fact that in 1908 the number of
Germans settling in Paraguay was 146. while
there was no record of English immigrants. This
question of the population is the most pressing
problem of the day. Even now amongst the
native inhabitants the females largely predominate.
The scarcity of money and the amount of the
paper currency are still drawbacks to the fuller
exploitation of Paraguayan resources. The present
issue of about ;^500,ooo in paper money is obvi-
ously insufficient for the commercial needs of a
million inhabitants whose centres of commerce are
so far apart ; this scarcity of money has even led
to the introduction in rural districts of the primi-
tive system of exchange of products. A deter-
mination seems to have been arrived at to abstain
from further new issues until the values in relation
to the gold standard can be adjusted. In order to
convert the existing paper currency, Congress
passed laws in 1907 and 1910 respectively. The
first of these ordered the entire proceeds of the
export duties on hides (say ^50,000 per annum)
to be set apart for a ''conversion fund," while that
of 1910 authorized a loan of ;^i, 000,000, at five
per cent., to be utilized in part payment of the debt
to the French Bank, for public works, and in
establishing an exchange rate by means of a
system of conversion such as that adopted in Brazil
and Argentina. Meanwhile, improved trade and the
deposit of nearly i^ioo,ooo (being some twenty per

342 THE TEN REPUBLICS

cent, of the value of the note circulation) brought
about a rapid and welcome fall in the rates of
exchange — the average commercial gold quotation,
which had been 1521 per cent, in 1909, having
fallen to 1384 during 1910. In 1906-7 there had
been a financial "slump" due to overstocking,
but the recovery from this state of affairs has been
so rapid that the British Consul at Asuncion was
able to write : " In face of adverse circumstances
with which it had to contend, it speaks well for
the business community that, with two or three
unimportant exceptions, there have been no
failures." The Banco Agricola, which is State-
capitalized, grants loans to work-people at the com-
paratively low rate of six percent, per annum, and
this has benefited agriculturists : but its modest
capital of ^^200,000 is too small to be effective.
Ordinary interest on money is very high, the
current rate, even with substantial guarantees,
being fifteen per cent.

A good deal of smuggling goes on, this being
aided by the vast extent of the river-side territory
and its contiguity to the Argentine frontier. The
land tax is very small, but it is by no means easy
with the means at hand to organize the collection
of taxes over so vast an area. The Customs
duties are levied ad valorem; a new valuation
tariff which became law in 1909 is similar to that
of Argentina. While the average of the import
duties may be calculated at forty per cent., a large
number of articles, notably machinery and imple-

PARAGUAY 243

ments used in the meat industry, are admitted
duty free.

The majority of the roads in Paraguay neces-
sarily provide very rough travelling, and all that
the opening of the new railway ^ means to the little
Republic has been admirably expressed by Lady
Susan Townley, in an interesting article in
The Times South American Number of Decem-
ber 28th, 1908: ''At every village where we
stopped and were entertained," she writes, ''the
conversation of our hosts invariably turned upon
this topic. ' Until the railway is brought within
our reach,' they would sadly remark, 'progress is
impossible in Paraguay.' At present all the cattle
have to be driven, sometimes over immense dis-
tances, to market, and they grow footsore and thin
on the way, thus losing considerably in value,
whilst the grain and other produce has to be con-
veyed to Asuncion by the antiquated and slow
bullock-waggons. Though the land is so fertile,
the pastures so rich, the forests so full of valuable
timber, these sources of wealth to the country are
rendered comparatively valueless by the cost and
difficulty of conveyance to market. Luckily the
'Paraguayan Central,' the only railway in the
country, is being rapidly pushed on, and will in
the near future form a continuous link between
Asuncion and Villa Encarnacion in the south,
tapping in its course the rich grain and cattle dis-

^ The writer is advised that the railway should be completed
by June of the present year (191 1).

244 THE TEN REPUBLICS

tricts of 'Misiones'i on the one hand, and the
great yerba-mate plantations and valuable forest-
lands on the other. Ultimately this railway is to
be connected by means of a ferry-boat over the
Parana river with Posadas, and from there, with-
out change of gauge, via the Argentine railway
systems of Corrientes and Entre Rios with Buenos
Aires itself, the great exporting centre of South
America. Then will Paraguay have her chance,
being for the first time in her history brought
into direct railway communication with the rest of
the world."

It is difficult to realize that previous to the
great war Paraguay was a richer and more
prosperous country than Argentina was at
that period. The war occurred at a critical
moment in the history of South American com-
merce. From 1865 to 1875 the processes for
freezing meat were being perfected, and
Great Britain was seeking fresh food supplies.
Owing to the destruction of the Paraguayan
estancias, Argentina secured the new trade, the
foreign capital, and the numerous immigrants.
Paraguay has, however, already done much to
regain her position, and the qualities that she has
shown in making this effort augur favourably for
her commercial importance in the near future.

^ A term applied to the land where the Jesuits formerly main-
tained so many missions.

CHAPTER XII

PERU

"Let observation with extensive view
Survey mankind from China to Peru."

These lines of Samuel Johnson's suggest that to
Fleet Street Peru stands for the uttermost bounds
of the earth ; to South America, however, it bears
a very different relation. Historically, politically,
and geographically, Peru is the heart of the
continent.

The mountains of the Andes, with their varied
temperature and fertile valleys, offered to the
aboriginal races more than the bare subsistence
obtainable elsewhere, but they did not offer it
gratuitously ; the kindly fruits of the earth were
the reward of energy and intelligence, and thus
the Peruvian became the superior in civilization of
his brethren in the plains, over whom he lorded it
until he in his turn succumbed in the sixteenth
century to the Spaniards. With their advent the
importance of the country increased ; for many
years the whole of the Spanish dominions in
South America were ruled from Lima, and it was
not until the insurgent republics were victorious
in Peru that their independence was secured.

This long pre-eminence has given Peru claims
245

246 THE TEN REPUBLICS

on territory coveted by her neighbours, and the
attention of statesmen lias still to be directed from
time to time to her frontiers in the fear that
questions suitable for arbitration should be decided
by the sword. It is but a few years ago that she
was deprived by Chile of her coast province of
Tarapaca, of which the deserts — at once rich and
barren — have influenced her history no less than
her mountains themselves.

It is with something akin to relief that we turn
to a country whose attractions do not wholly lie in
her commercial opportunities. Wonderful to con-
template as is the onward flow of the great stream
of materialism that has left no South American
state untouched, the discovery of opposite tenden-
cies which furnish evidences of past history and
tradition that has not yet given way to modern
habits of thought, is refreshing. Just as the ruins
of old Peru among the Cordillera valleys turn our
inward eye to the vision of an older civilization,
finer and more thoughtful in many ways than our
own, so the essential characteristics of the Peru-
vian nature, proceeding from the merging of
Spanish romanticism with the native Quechuan
melancholy, suggest an influence that may be
of much value in the future to the great world
of South American life.

From Lima, the original chief seat of the
Spanish viceroys, the home of the first South
American printing press and the first university,
come evidences of that spirit of culture without

PERU

247

which no social centre, however prosperous, can
for long be sufficient unto itself and retain the
affection of its more thoughtful citizens. The

way in which her educational and literary institu-
tions have placed their resources at the service of
practical investigation and research points to the

248 THE TEN REPUBLICS

conversion of the old Lima to a wide educational
outlook, and to another result that will have an
equally important influence upon the future of the
city, the modern Lima's recognition of the value
of its inheritance from the past.

Peru's early history is so minutely recorded in
Prescott's classic pages that even the barest
allusion to it here would be supererogatory. It
is Peru in the last decade or two that this chapter
would show, a less richly romantic, but a gener-
ally improved and advanced Peru, no longer a
mere gold mine, but a workaday nation turned to
the cultivation of its varied sources of wealth and
gradually recovering from its misfortunes.

In 1884, after the war which lost her the nitrate
province of Tarapaca, Peru's position could hardly
have been worse. President Iglesias was more
Chile's choice than Peru's, and malcontents soon
became actively hostile under the determined and
resourceful General Caceres, the Chilian troops
having scarcely evacuated Lima when the streets of
the old city rang with civil strife. Financially the
country was ruined, and a depleted Treasury was
confronted with the result of former reckless
borrowing in the shape of a foreign debt of
i^23, 000,000. But on the one hand a truce was
arranged between the contending parties and
in 1886 Caceres was chosen as President by a
Ministerial Council ; while on the other the
foreign debt, (almost exclusively English), was
later on taken over by the Peruvian Corporation

PERU 249

in exchange for the cession, during a term of
years, of the guano deposits, railways, State lands
and mines ; and for a time all promised well. In
1890, however, upon the termination of Caceres'
period of office, dissensions arose as to his suc-
cessor, with the result that Caceres was again
elected President. A large party under Nicolas
de Pierola rose against him in 1895, and
for three days there was heavy fighting in
the capital. Caceres was defeated and Pierola
became President, his administration being
marked by Peru's first step towards pro-
gress. He was succeeded by Eduardo de
Romana, whose peaceful term was followed by
another, unfortunately brief, under President
Candamo, who died in office. In 1904 Dr. Jose
Pardo was elected to the Presidency, since when,
with the exception of a '' revolution," headed last
year by the brothers Amadeo and Isaias Pierola,
in the course of which President Leguia was for a
few hours held prisoner by a party of the insur-
gents, Peru's history has been one of peace and,
as will presently appear, of economic advance.
The present chief magistrate. Dr. Augusto B.
Leguia, was elected in September, 1908, for the
usual term of four years.

When the writer was in Lima in November of
1910 he was accorded an interview with the Presi-
dent, a man of much quiet determination and
energy, whose courage in a critical moment con-
quered the sympathies of many among his enemies,

250 THE TEN REPUBLICS

to whom he has shown no particular malice. In
external affairs, too, his attitude is pacific, and
alluding to the possibility of a settlement by force
of arms of the boundary dispute with Ecuador,
President Leguia declared that Peru did not want
war, and would do all in her power to avert it.

Peru is bounded on the west by the Pacific
Ocean, on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on
the north-east by Brazil, and on the east and south
by Bolivia and Chile. Her coast-line, as recognized
by Ecuador and Chile, extends from imme-
diately south of the Guayas estuary to the outlet of
the river Sama, but her various boundary disputes
prevent exact definition of her geographical posi-
tion and area. If the department of Loreto, of
which the greater part is claimed by Ecuador, be
considered entirely Peruvian, and the Tarapaca,
Tacna, and Arica territory, which Chile is likely
to retain, be omitted from the official estimates, her
total area is approximately 660,000 square miles.

The physical characteristics of the country differ
little from those of other Andean republics. Peru
is divided naturally into three zones : the coastal
region, an almost rainless desert, varying in width
from fifty to one hundred miles, crossed at con-
siderable intervals by short, unnavigable rivers
which descend from the western Cordillera, and
whose course towards the Pacific lies through thefer-
tile but circumscribed valleys which they water, and
which are the sites of most of the coastal towns ;
the Andean region, which covers more than one-

PERU 251

fourth of the entire territory, and which itself may
be divided into cold and barren tablelands, tem-
perate uplands, and hot ravines or gorges ; and
the uiojitanay which begins east of the eastern
Cordillera, and extends to the Brazilian and
Bolivian frontiers, a region of luxuriant tropical
vegetation, rich in timber, valuable plants and
rubber, and watered by several great rivers with
innumerable tributaries.

This varied territory is politically divided into
twenty Departments and two Littoral Provinces,
subdivided into provinces and districts.

The population of Peru is estimated at about
3,600,000 inhabitants, of which 15 per cent, are
whites, of Spanish origin, 50 per cent. Indians,
31 i per cent, of the mestizo class, 2 per cent.
Africans, and \\ per cent. Chinese and Japanese.

Lima, the capital of the Republic, a city of
160,000 inhabitants, lies a few miles inland from
Callao. It is a fine old city, with many architec-
tural marks of its early Spanish origin and fewer
signs of modern progress than are to be noted in
some South American capitals. Its importance as
an educational and literary centre has already been
referred to.

The Constitution of Peru dates from i860, and
administrationis based upon the inter-independence
of the Legislative, Executive and Judicial govern-
ing bodies. The President, elected by direct
popular vote for a term of four years, is assisted
by six Secretaries, for Home, State, War and

252 THE TEN REPUBLICS

Marine, Finance and Commerce, Justice, and
Public Works respectively. Congress consists of
two Chambers, the Senate and' the Chamber of
Deputies, whose members are elected for a term
of six years by direct vote.

Peru's sources of mineral wealth are as numerous
and diverse as those of any Latin-American Re-
public, with the possible exception of Bolivia,
which seems to have a monopoly of the tin deposits.
The Cerro de Pasco, in the department of Juni'n,
is the centre of the principal mining district, and
within a considerable radius of the celebrated hill
the earth is richly seamed with copper, silver,
gold and many other precious metals, including
the quite recently discovered vanadium. As usual,
the minerals are found chiefly in the Andes region.
The department of Puno yields most of the gold,
though the streams which flow into the Pacific,
especially in the southern departments of lea and
Arequipa, bring down auriferous sands from the
mountains, and gold is also found in districts of
the moiitana. Silver and lead occur throughout
the Andean region, and copper abounds in the
Cerro de Pasco neighbourhood, and in Yauli and
other centres. In the department of Huancavelica
are numerous deposits of quicksilver, especially in
the vicinity of the famous Santa Barbara mine,
which has been worked since Colonial times. The
northern coastal department of Piura produces
vanadium, sulphur and petroleum, of which latter
there are vast deposits in lea and Puno, and

PERU 253

around Lake Titicaca. It is calculated that
throughout the Republic there are nearly seven
hundred petroleum wells working. They are at
present mostly in the Zorritos and Negritos dis-
tricts, but discoveries are being made in many
other regions, and indicate an extraordinary abun-
dance of this oil in Peru. Anthracite and pit coal of
good quality occur in the departments of Cajamarca,
Ancachs (where, around Tablones, there is an out-
crop eighteen miles in length), Junin, Arequipa,
Puno and Moquegua and elsewhere, and the de-
posits of this mineral may shortly solve for Peru the
fuel problem which harasses all South America.

From the groups of rocky islands in the Pacific,
where rain seldom falls, much guano is still
extracted ; but this product has not recently
figured so prominently among the exports for the
reason that the guano from all the islands south
of Callao, with one exception, is now worked by
a native company which has contracted to supply
Peruvian agriculturists only,^ and also because a
close season of six months in the year has been
established for the industry. The richest beds of
guano at present are on the two groups of Lobos
Islands, the Ballestas, and Macabi Island.

It is to be regretted that the statistics published
do not make clear the value of the various minerals
exported during 1909. We know that of the
country's entire exportation of ;^6, 134,374, wool,

* During- 1910 Peruvian agriculturists took nearly 25,000 tons
of guano for their various cultivations.

254 THE TEN REPUBLICS

cotton, sugar, cocaine and hides represented
about half, or ;^3, 050,950, but of the balance,
;^3,o83,424, we have only been able to obtain
from El Diarioy a Lima journal, details for the
first six months of 1909 compared with a similar
period in 1908, which follow : —

1909

1908

£

£

Minerals .

658,421

856,226

1 Rubber .

183,310

173,944

Crude Petroleum

56,448

25,602

Rice

23,023

31,337

1 Cocoa

7,643

11,903

Alcohol

3,741

7,474

The chief product of the vegetable kingdom is
the rubber of the montana^ which has for some
years occupied second place as an export. The
rubber districts are the huge department of
Loreto and the northern part of the department of
Cuzco, where the gathering and shipping of hevea
and caucho occupies practically the whole of the
population. In spite of the fact that the 1910
season was particularly rainy and unfavourable,
nearly 2300 tons of rubber and caucho were
exported during that year. There are still great
tracts of virgin forest in Loreto which must con-
tain an abundance of rubber trees, and it is there-
fore no matter for surprise that, except by the
Peruvian Corporation at Perene Colony, no plant-
ing is done. In December, 1909, new and wel-
come laws as to real estate were issued from Lima,

^ The bulk of the rubber exports and the greater part of the
cocoa would be shipped during the latter half of the year.

PERU 255

as a result of which private individuals may now
acquire definite titles to rubber and other lands in
perpetuity. In the first six months of 1910 over
1,300,000 acres of lands were granted, chiefly to
foreigners.

From the department of Loreto, in 1910, pro-
ducts to the value of over ^^1,000,000 were shipped,
including, besides rubber, 53,300 tons of vegetable
ivory, some hides and skins, and a little raw
cotton. The imports, goods of every description,
since the only manufacturing industry in the
region is the weaving of '* Chile " hats, amounted
to about the same figure.

Loreto is here mentioned at some little length
for various reasons. Upon its capital, the port of
Iquitos on the Amazon, many large and freely
navigable rivers converge, amongst them the
immense Ucayali, and from Iquitos, at all times of
the year, the Atlantic coast is reached in about a
week without trans-shipment, by ocean vessels sail-
ing to Europe and the United States.^ Then the
projected railway from Paita on the Pacific coast
has Iquitos as its objective point, though the exact
route is not settled at the moment of writing.
Again, the department has an export trade which
may, in any especially favourable year, become
the first in importance of the whole country ; and,

^ Nearly the whole of the carrying trade to and from Iquitos is
done by the Iquitos S.S. Co., a British concern. In 1910,
nineteen of the Company's vessels entered and cleared, eight
from New York with 5392 tons of cargo, and eleven from the
United Kingdom with 14,384 tons.

256 THE TEN REPUBLICS

finally, in the event of Ecuador agreeing to submit
her boundary dispute to arbitration and gaining
all that she claims (which it must be admitted
is improbable), a vast area north of the middle of
the Amazon, including the port of Iquitos, would
pass from Peru's possession into that of her
northern neighbour.

On the coast excellent and very important crops
of cotton and sugar are raised to quite a large
extent by irrigation, which, discounting the initial
cost, has some advantages over the natural means.
The chief producing centres, however, are still the
well-watered alluvial valleys, and in the Piura,
Lechura, Catacaos, La Chira, lea, Nazca and
Moquegua valleys cotton in particular acquires a
growth and a quality unequalled anywhere in the
world. The indigenous plant (gossypium perii-
vianum) which grows in the four first-mentioned
districts, has a fibre closely resembling wool, and
is used in the manufacture of woollen goods in
England. It grows only in Peru, and is quoted
in British markets at an average of ten per cent,
above the price of any other quality. The pro-
duction per acre of the '^ upland " variety (484 lb.)
is greater than that of the best cotton lands in
Egypt, and consequently in the world. Extension
of the irrigation system must mean a correspond-
ing increase in the exportation, which in seven
years (1903-9) has more than quadrupled in value.

Nearly a quarter of a million acres of land on
the coast are under sugar-cane, which soil and

PERU 257

climate combine to develop to extraordinary
dimensions and productivity. The Chilian re-
fineries depend largely on Peruvian raw sugar,
though much is taken by England at relatively
high prices. The following table will show the
recent progress of the two exports above-men-
tioned : —

1907. 1909.

Tons. Value. Tons. Value.

^ ^ ^

Cotton . 24,527 516,256 33,727 1,245,415

Sugar . 110,615 827,298 125,395 1,159,972

Good crops of rice are also raised on the coast,
irrigation being employed with conspicuous suc-
cess, and it may be said that within the last few
years Perii has ceased to import and commenced
to export this commodity.

The animal kingdom contributes in consider-
able measure to Peru's export trade. The rearing
of sheep and cattle is a growing industry in
Junin, Ancachs, Cuzco, Cajamarca and other
districts of the plateau where there is good pas-
turage.

The total imports into Peru during 1909
amounted to ;^4,356, 132, and in order of import-
ance the principal items were : iron and other
metal ware, cotton manufactures, machinery,
woollen goods, wheat and coal. It would appear
that among the exporters to Peru England was
first, the United States second and Germany third.
As a purchaser of Peruvian products Great Britain
easily occupies first place, taking most of the
s

258 THE TEN REPUBLICS

cotton, wool and guano, and much of the minerals
and rubber. The United States, Chile, France
and Germany follow in the order named, but
Belgium is making a strong bid for fourth or even
third place.

Peruvian manufactures are not of great import-
ance, but there are five fairly prosperous cotton
manufactories in Lima, and there is one in lea and
another near Arequipa. In various parts of the
west are flour-mills, match factories, breweries,
biscuit and lard factories, a few tanneries and
cotton-seed oil factories, etc.

There are half-a-dozen establishments for the
preparation of wool, but their output is insuffi-
cient even for the local demand. The manufacture
of hats, which Peruvians claim to have originated
in Moyobamba, in the department of Loreto,
keeps a considerable number of hands employed,
and the distilling of alcohol from sugar cane is
a thriving business. Cigar and cigarette making
and the manufacture of cocaine and wines and
spirits are industries of some importance, while
for the generating of electric light and power from
the fall of the Rimac, a company known as the
Electric Trust, operates with a capital of over
;^2, 000,000, working the electric railways of
Callao and Chorrillos and the Lima tramways.

The national revenues are derived, as to about
fifty per cent., from import and export duties.
There are heavy taxes on alcohol, sugar, tobacco,
and matches, and others include a small tax on

PERU 259

active capital. In addition to these sources there
are the Government monopolies of salt, opium,
and, since 1909, tobacco. The salt monopoly
yielded, in 1909, i^93,575, and that of opium
;^22,7i8. The Government entrusts the manage-
ment of the opium and tobacco monopolies and
the collection of most of the taxes to a National
Tax-collecting Company, which receives one per
cent, of the total product for its services ; and the
salt monopoly is conducted by a National Salt
Company on similar lines. These rather unusual
arrangements are said to work very well.

The national revenue in 1909 was ;^2,5i8,o62,
and the net deficit ;6^343,220. No details of the
expenditure can be given, but the service of the
public debt has in the last few years been scrupu-
lously covered and the country's credit stands
reasonably high in Europe. Peru was able in
June of last year to arrange in France a loan
of ;6^i, 200,000 at 5 J per cent., with the proceeds of
which she cancelled bank loans amounting to
;6^5oo,ooo and the balance of another, all bearing
six to eight per cent interest.

The progress of Peruvian railways, of most of
which the Peruvian Corporation is the usufruct-
uary, has not been particularly satisfactory.
Lack of funds has recently prevented active work
on the Huancayo-Ayacucho line, which is con-
structed only for some twenty miles, and progress
with the Lima-Huacho line has also been slow.
The Ilo-Moquegua and Tumbes-Puerto Pizarro

26o THE TEN REPUBLICS

lines are reported to be working satisfactorily and
economically. The projected line from Paita to
Iquitos, whose importance to Peru it is difficult to
exaggerate, will cross the Andes at Molino and
Guayabo, employing the rack system for a stretch
of twenty-five miles. Another line practically
decided upon is that which will leave Goyaris-
quisga, a little north of Cerro de Pasco, and run
east and north for 270 miles to Pucalpa on the
Ucayali river, joining the capital with the unex-
ploited part of Loreto ; while amongst other enter-
prises under consideration are the Santa Ana-
Cuzco line and the railway from a point on the
Juliaca-Cuzco line to one of the navigable rivers
in the south-east, which the Peruvian Corporation
is at present studying.

Mention of Peruvian railways would be far
from complete without a brief allusion to the
Oroya railroad, one of the most remarkable lines
in the world and a combination of many feats of
engineering. Originally commenced at Callao in
1869, work on the line was suspended in 1877, on
the death of its constructor, Mr. Henry Meiggs.
Not until 1891 did the Peruvian Corporation take
over the railroad, which was then actively pushed
forward, reaching Oroya in 1893. There are
branches to Ancon and Morococha, and a private
line runs from Oroya northwards to the Cerro de
Pasco mining district. In its course of 227^ miles
the main line reaches an altitude, at Ticlio, of
15,665 feet, and a trip from Callao to Oroya pro-

PERU 261

vides a safe and comfortable method of enjoying
the unsurpassed Andine scenery of Peru.

Education in Peru is under the control of the
General Office of Public Instruction, and elemen-
tary education is both compulsory and free, being
provided by fiscal or municipal schools to the
number of 2159, attended by some 154,000
scholars. Practical instruction is very actively
promoted by a system of general scholarships
at the National School of Agriculture, and in
Lima the School of Manual Training and Physical
Culture is doing good work. The ancient and
excellent San Marcos University alone would con-
stitute Lima a seat of learning, and there are
universities at Arequipa, Cuzco and Trujillo.

Labour in Peru is scarce, especially in the
rubber districts. The Republic has, or will have
shortly, to face the problem arising from the
immigration of Japanese and Chinese labourers,
of which there are some 10,000 in the country.
Peru sees in these the nucleus of a yellow
peril, and the industrious Celestials, especially
when they become successful shopkeepers, are not
popular, though the Japanese are welcomed on the
sugar and rubber estates. The efforts of the
Government are now in the direction of attracting
European immigration of good class.

CHAPTER XIII
URUGUAY

THE territory which now is occupied without
dispute by the Oriental RepubHc of Uruguay
was wrested by the Spaniards, with long and pain-
ful effort, from the hardiest, fiercest, and most
courageous of the South American aboriginal
tribes. Time and again did the indomitable
Cliarruas defeat in pitched battle the veterans
which Spain sent against them ; but they could not
be expected to stand for very long before the skill
and daring which had conquered the Incas and
the Aztecs, and at last the few which had survived
the constant struggle disappeared into the forests
of mid-Brazil.

The history of Uruguay in Colonial times is the
history of all Latin America in the same period.
In 1810 she declared her independence with the
rest, and in 18 14 she was free, and part of the
Argentine Federation. In less than a year she
grew restive and seceded, constituting herself a
sovereign and independent state with a Govern-
ment at Montevideo. But in 1821 Brazil annexed
her, after much fighting, and she became the Pro-
vincia Cis-platina. Four years later a revolution

262

URUGUAY 263

in the new State, instigated and assisted from
Buenos Aires, resulted in war between Brazil and
Argentina, and upon the cessation of hostilities
Uruguay was formally and finally recognized as
an independent State.

For a few years there was peace in the Republic,
but from 1839 until quite recent times the guerrero
spirit of the Uruguayans has been evident in the
intermittent civil wars, the longest period of
internal peace coinciding with the seven years'
war with Paraguay. Since 1904 the people have
been more occupied with the commercial develop-
ment of the country, but, as was shown in October
last, the ancient intolerance of government has
not entirely abated.

Previous to 1891 the financial history of the
Republic was a chequered one, but since that date,
thanks to Presidents Cuestas, Batlle y Ordoiiez,
and Williman, the country's foreign obligations
have been scrupulously and punctually met, and
of all the Latin-American States none enjoys higher
credit than Uruguay, while, area for area, none
can boast greater prosperity.

Uruguay, the smallest of the Latin-American
republics, with an area rather less than that of
England, is bounded on the north and east by
Brazil, on the west by Argentina, and on the
south by the Rio de la Plata and the Atlantic.

Physiographically, its territory consists for the
most part of undulating plains, traversed by short
ranges of rocky mountains following no particular

264

THE TEN REPUBLICS

direction and of no very great height, and inter-
sected by some large and many small rivers. Of
these latter few are navigable, and of the larger
streams the Uruguay has regularly to be dredged

:= " - Coiistriirtion,

•«. Projected JiaiLwat/s

in certain parts, while the Rio Negro is difficult in
time of drought. In the north are mineral deposits
of some importance, as yet scarcely exploited, but
in the centre and south the natural products of
the country spring entirely from the fertility of the
soil, which provides some of the best grazing in
South America,

URUGUAY 265

This territory is divided for the purpose of
administration into nineteen departments. The
constitution of Uruguay has remained practically
unchanged for upwards of eighty years, and, in
the opinion of many, it is the best of all South
American constitutions. Half a century before
slavery completely vanished from American soil,
Uruguay declared emphatically against it, and this
declaration was supplemented a little later by an
enactment conferring freedom upon the few slaves
still in the country. Freedom of religion was or-
dained, and there is no censorship of the public
press. There is no imprisonment for debt. Con-
scription is unknown, and if any person is called
upon to lodge troops in time of war, the Senate
enacts that he shall be suitably indemnified.

Legislative power is vested in two Chambers,
viz. a Chamber of Deputies (nominated by direct
election) and a Chamber of Senators. These
Chambers elect a President of the Republic every
four years, and they also appoint the magistrates
of the High Court. It may be mentioned, as
showing recent financial and economical progress,
that of the four financial years 1906-9 three have
closed with a surplus of over ^^425, 000. The
amount sanctioned as "budget expenditure " for
1908-9 was ^^"4,404, 113, whereof i^2, 187,000 was
allocated to "national obligations" and the rest
to the State administration.

About forty-five per cent., therefore, of the
country's annual revenue, mainly derived from

266 THE TEN REPUBLICS

heavy import duties, goes to the payment of the
debt, which commenced in i860 with a modest
;^58,ooo. The following figures illustrate its rapid
increase after that date : —

£
1880 .... 10,320,227

1890 .... 19,116,776

1900 .... 26,703,607

1909 .... 27,692,995

This sum has since been made up to nearly
thirty millions by the floating of a Public Works
Loan of ;^i, 270,000. It is a truly immense Public
Debt for a young and small country of little
more than a million inhabitants, working out at
£2^ IIS. lod. per capita^ although there is the
satisfactory set-off of the Republic's extraordinary
prosperity, which was never greater than in the
present year.

Last year Uruguay could boast of nearly fifteen
hundred miles of railway in active operation, all
British owned, and 830 miles of it ''guaranteed"
or subsidized by the State. And since the working
of its railroads affords an indication of a country's
prosperity it may be mentioned that for the finan-
cial year 1909-10 Uruguayan railways showed a
total profit of ;^7 13,000. Fifty-three miles of line
were added in the same period, the eastern exten-
sion of the Central Railway, which runs north and
west from Montevideo, being completed to its
terminus, Melo ; but a much more ambitious pro-

URUGUAY 267

gramme has been authorized for this year (191 1).
On the Durazno-Trinidad section of the Pan-
American railway work had already begun in
April, and the Puerto Sauce-Trinidad section was
to be commenced immediately and hurried for-
ward at all speed. This line will open up the
departments of Flores, Durazno and Colonia.
Then the construction of the line from Treinta y
Tres to Corrales is proceeding apace, with two
thousand men at work on fifteen miles of road.
From Pan de Azucar a line is being built which
will greatly assist an important agricultural
region, while the cities of Canelones and San Jose
are to be linked by rail as soon as possible. Rio
de Janeiro and Montevideo have recently been
connected by extensions in Brazil, but for some
time the sea-voyage will be the shorter route.

No less than ^^50,000,000 of British capital is
locked up in Uruguay, a sum in excess of that
invested in any South American country save the
great Republics of Brazil and Argentina, and it
must be remembered that the ^'Oriental Re-
public " covers only 72,000 square miles. Of this
^^50,000,000 it may be roughly estimated that some
i^27, 000,000 is in Government stocks, ^13,000,000
in railroad enterprise, perhaps ;^5, 000, 000 in other
joint stock concerns, and the remainder in insur-
ance, shipping, etc.

It may perhaps best serve to illustrate this most
interesting country's expansion of trade by setting
out at length the figures covering the amount of

268 THE TEN REPUBLICS

exports and imports during the last seven years
for which figures are published : —

Imports. Exports.

£ £

1903 5»34i>276 7,950,851

1904 4,514,255 8,188,298

1905 6,548,511 6,554,255

1906 7>330)85i 7,106,808

1907 7,972,492 7,418,814

1908 7,969,396 8,562,977

1909 7,905,694 9,584,478

In 1910 the total importation and exportation
amounted together to ^17,614,235, a trade record
which the present year, however, promises to
surpass.

The following figures show the details of the
export trade of the country during the last three
years for which they can be obtained : —

1907

1908

1909

£

£

£

Live stock and cattle

products, including

meat, wool and hides

6,733,715

7,751,950

8,540,027

Flour, Fodder, Meat,

etc.

333,097

448,957

609,101

Minerals (mainly

stone and sand)

245,380

247,458

304,953

Ship's provisions in

general

96,269

93,426

113,365

Miscellaneous

10,353

21,186

17,032

7,418,814

8,562,977

9,584,478

Of Uruguay's exports in 1900 France took nearly
a fifth part. Next in order of importance as con-
sumers were Germany and Belgium (who were

URUGUAY 269

about equal); Brazil, the United States and Great
Britain, whose share consisted of meat, meat ex-
tracts, and wool.

Uruguay's imports consist principally of textiles,
food-stuffs, coal, and iron, timber, stone and glass
manufactures. Her wants are chiefly supplied by
Great Britain, whose exports to Uruguay in 1909
amounted to i^2, 418,005, or roughly one-third, a
level which has been maintained for a number of
years. Germany contributed in 1907 ^^1,293,531,
and in 1908 ;6^i, 324,861.

A rough estimate of the live stock reared
annually on the plains of Uruguay works out at
20,000,000 sheep, 7,000,000 cattle, 600,000 horses
and 100,000 hogs. Apart from the live stock,
therefore, the trade in hides, skins and wool is
considerable. Most of the raw wool, amounting
to 100,000 bales the year before last, is taken by
France. There are twenty ^^saladeros" for the
preparation of jerked beef scattered through the
pastoral country, and one establishment only de-
voted to the frozen meat industry. A big and
welcome impetus has been given to the live stock
trade by the cancelling of the vexatious duties on
cattle, mules, horses, sheep and goats formerly
imposed by the Government of Brazil. Of the
many meat-packing houses the most prominent
are those of the familiar '' Liebig's Extract." Nor
must the very considerable "line" in various
cereals be overlooked, for unquestionably it has
a great future. In a recent year as much as 34,000

270 THE TEN REPUBLICS

tons of excellent wheat was shipped from Monte-
video in addition to bran, flour, corn and barley.

At present Uruguay's export trade indicates
little diversity of natural sources of wealth, about
nine-tenths of the total being live stock and cattle
products. As to the importance of the mineral
deposits in the north and in the centre opinions
are conflicting, and the results of the coal and gold
mining begun last year have not transpired. Petro-
leum is known to exist, but no effort appears to
have been made to develop it commercially, though
cheap fuel would be a boon to the community ;
and such of the country's exports as are officially
catalogued as minerals consist for the most part of
stone and sand. It would therefore seem that
Uruguay must rely for her prosperity upon her
cattle-raising and agricultural industries, and of
recent years much has been done in the direction
of improving the strain of her live stock and the
prevention or stamping out of epidemics. English
prize cattle and kine have been largely introduced,
with valuable results, and dairy farming is on the
increase. The tilling of the soil is not possible,
or rather, profitable, in all parts of the country,
but where it is practised the yield is abundant. A
very little rubber is found.

In his valedictory Presidential message to the
Chambers, delivered in February, 191 1, Dr.
Williman laid emphasis on the '' exact and hon-
ourable fulfilment of the country's obligations,"
and on the definite establishment of its foreign

URUGUAY 271

credit. He mentioned that within four years up-
wards of ;^3, 500,000 had been expended on public
works, and was able to conclude with the predic-
tion of days of assured peace and plenty for the
Republic. In a conversation which the writer had
with President Williman he evinced as great an
interest in the moral and educational progress of
his people as in their material welfare.

The progressive Uruguayan Government has for
some long time past provided for the free educa-
tion of children. During Dr. Williman's term as
President no fewer than 150 schools were simul-
taneously established throughout the country, and
before his term of office came to an end the number
of schools, which in 1875 had been 190 and in
1908 had reached 805, increased to 1000, the
attainment of this figure being one of the Presi-
dent's most cherished ambitions. If recent ad-
vices do not err, the present President, Sefior
Jose Batlle y Ordoiiez, is even more enthusiastic
for the spread of education, for he proposes to
create and endow within a short period the extra-
ordinary number of 600 primary schools, though
in educational matters Uruguay already stands not
merely ahead of any other South American state
save Argentina, but also in front of those of the
Latin countries of Southern Europe.

With regard to higher education, Montevideo
boasts a splendid university. In a great building,
four storeys high, are contained colleges of Medicine,
Law, Commerce, and Secondary Education, and

272 THE TEN REPUBLICS

visitors and savants from Europe have repeatedly
expressed their opinion that the University of
Montevideo is on a par with the great educational
institutions of the Old World. There are, in ad-
dition, the Polytechnic at Salto, the ''Sandurero,"
^' Mercedario,"and ''Uruguayo" at Mercedes, and
other excellent establishments. At Sayagoi also
there is the splendid Institute of Agriculture.

The spread of education may do much to dispel
the bitter feeling between the Colorados^ the govern-
ing party, and the Blancos^ or, to give them the
designation they have recently assumed, National-
ists. It is more an inherited hostility than one
based on any wide divergence of opinion, and
was originally engendered by the rivalries between
Generals Oribe and Rivera and their followers,
which began with the very birth of the republic ;
an Uruguayan of to-day is a Colorado or a
Nationalist because his father was one or the
other. As may be seen, the strife of the politicos
has not fatally hindered the commercial progress
of the country, but its economic advance would
be more rapid if the party in power could feel it
safe to disband a part of the large standing army,
which in view of the country's excellent relations
with its neighbours is a totally unnecessary and
unfair burden upon the State. For Uruguay's
boundaries with Argentina are purely natural
frontiers, and in May of last year Brazil and
Uruguay exchanged ratifications of the new
treaty of limits on Lake Mirim and the River

URUGUAY 273

Yaguaron, a settlement hailed in Uruguay as
an act of justice on the part of the Brazilians
which will straiten the bonds of friendship.

Of the populous centres of Uruguay, the port
and city of Montevideo is somewhat disproportion-
ately superior in every way to the next most im-
portant towns. It stands on a bold headland, the
termination of the Sierra de las Animas, a really
beautiful city with a mild and benign climate and
an almost English appearance. Its electric-tram
system is probably the best in South America,
and when the installations now in progress have
been completed it will be one of the best lighted
cities on the whole continent. Several million
pounds have quite recently been expended on its
embellishment, the improvements including a new
river-front some two miles long, in the style
the Thames Embankment with a Rotten Row:
added, a new and fine avenue, and the paving
with asphalte of a great part of the city streets.
It has the oldest English club and one' of the
largest English colonies in South America, and
other British institutions comprise a Diamond
Jubilee Hall, two churches, and the Montevideo
TimeSy edited by an independent and outspoken
Englishman, Mr. Denstone. More native features
of the capital are the beauty, grace, and elegance
of its women.

As to the port, though not naturally affording
good harbourage, the ;^3, 000,000 and more spent
since 1901 on dredging and on the extension of its

T

ts

W v^

Of^^

274 THE TEN REPUBLICS

eastern and western breakwaters have placed it in
the category of first-class ports. It has a com-
manding position on the Atlantic sea-board, and
the vessels of forty steamship companies, half of
them flying the British flag, enter Montevideo in
the course of the year. By a recent decree
merchant vessels are treated, with regard to pro-
visioning, as warships, being permitted to load
their stores out of bond free of Customs duties,
and this concession will render Montevideo even
more attractive as a port of call. The population
of port and city exceeds 300,000.

Of the other cities and towns such as Colonia,
Paysandu, Mercedes and Salto we have no space
to speak. They are all given over to the meat
industry, and as a consequence are less beautiful
than busy. Their sanitation, however, is carefully
looked after.

The population of Uruguay is far from sufficient
for the needs of the country. Labour is scarce
and dear and the import tariff renders living
expensive. The health of the country generally
is good, and the co-efficient of deaths and births
(forty to one hundred) very satisfactory as com-
pared with that of European countries.

Enough has been said to demonstrate the steady
growth, in the face of great difficulties, of
the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, and of her
prospects of yet greater and more rapid expansion.
In the words of a native writer, '' The Republic
furnishes a good example of those new peoples

URUGUAY 275

who, in their own right, take their places in the
great congress of nations dedicated to the social
good. We claim brotherhood with all the states
of the earth. We are supported by our demo-
cratic system of government, and we shall advance
by reason of the work we do for our country, and
by our ardent desire for progress, which will
surely carry us onwards towards our goal." And
it is not impossible that those qualities of virility
and high-spiritedness which among the Uruguay-
ans find their expression in aversion to authority,
will in the course of time be turned to the true
service of the country and the realization of their
rulers' ideals.

CHAPTER XIV

VENEZUELA

If James I had not turned a deaf ear to Sir
Walter Ralegh's suggestions when that great
explorer returned from his voyage up the Orinoco,
Venezuela might have become one of the richest
and most prosperous possessions of the British
Empire. Ralegh wanted King James to annex
Venezuela as a British colony, but at that time
the King's mind was under the influence of the
charges brought against Ralegh by the Spaniards,
whose revenge he had provoked, and soon after-
wards the great explorer was beheaded for high
treason and his aspirations as to Venezuela were
buried with his reputation.

The material potentialities of the country are
as impressive now as in those days they were to
Ralegh. The climate, soil, river supply, and
the excellence of its natural harbours still remain
excellent reasons for British colonization, in the un-
political sense of the word, though the finer motives
of restoring peace and avenging a conquered and
suffering people that inspired Ralegh's appeal to
his countrymen, happily need no longer be urged.

Venezuela is one of the nearest of the South
276

VENEZUELA

277

American Republics to Great Britain, being within
fourteen days' steaming of the port of Liverpool.
It occupies the northernmost part of the South
American continent, and is bounded by the

Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, Colombia,
Brazil and British Guiana. The country has an
officially estimated area of 393,976 square miles
and a population of 2,664,241, being one of the
most sparsely populated countries in South
America. It is divided into three distinct geo-
graphical zones : the plains and river valleys, the
mountain section and the dry and healthful table-
lands or plateaux, characteristics which are found

278 THE TEN REPUBLICS

in many of the neighbouring republics. Behind
the Venezuelan coast range of mountains lies the
basin of the Orinoco. This river, 1500 miles
long, has nearly five hundred tributaries, and is
navigable up from the ocean for about 1200 miles.
For nearly half its length it flows north, and then
turns almost directly east, and continues in this
line to the Atlantic. Near the bend of the Orinoco
it is joined by the Apure, one of its chief tribu-
taries, which has come down from the Eastern
Cordilleras of Colombia through the heart of the
region of the llanos or prairie lands. These lands
continue on to the east to the vertex of the delta
of the Orinoco. They comprise about 150,000
square miles in Venezuela and about 120,000
square miles in Colombia, and form the largest
single compact area of high-class natural cattle
pasture in the world. In the luxuriance of the
pasturage they are as far ahead of the pampas
lands of Argentina as these are ahead of the short
grass lands of Kansas or Nebraska. This im-
mense level prairie, thickly carpeted with para
and guineo grass, growing twice as high as broom
sedge on a neglected Virginian farm, is crossed
and interlaced by hundreds of rivers flowing into
the Orinoco or into its larger tributaries, the
Apure, the Arauca, the Meta, the Vichada and the
Guaviare. From these rivers spread out smaller
rivers, creeks and channels, joining one river to
another, so that the whole is one great water
mesh. In some places for a hundred miles one

VENEZUELA 279

must cross water every half mile or less. The
creeks and channels, when wide enough, are navi-
gable for launches and flatboats, and offer the best
and cheapest possible system of highways leading
directly down to the Orinoco and the sea.

From the earliest days of the Spanish conquest
Venezuela has been famed as a cattle land. At
the time of the war of independence, in 1812, it
was estimated that there were 3,000,000 head of
cattle in the country. The industry has never
since been so flourishing. These natural cattle
lands comprise about 170,000,000 acres, and could
easily support 180,000,000 head of cattle and not
be overstocked. In the past the industry has
been much hampered by Government restrictions,
monopolies and taxation, and the estimates as to
the cost of cattle production in consequence vary
much. Under the same favourable conditions as
exist in Mexico, Argentina and Uruguay, the
llanos of Venezuela can produce cattle ready for
slaughter at a cost which ought not to exceed los.
per head. Indeed, a company was formed less
than two years ago, which has started a refrigera-
ting business at Puerto Cabello, and has made a
number of shipments of cattle to Europe, already
with considerable success.

The high plateau lands are the chief agricultural
region, and are by far the richest economically and
the most populous. The climate is for the most
part mild and healthy. The principal objects of
cultivation are coffee, cocoa, sugar cane, maize

28o THE TEN REPUBLICS

and fruit. There are more than 247,000 acres of
coffee plantations, and the annual export of
berries, which are of superior quality, amounts to
52,000 tons. Sugar cane is cultivated more or
less throughout the Republic, and the con-
sumption of sugar in the country is dependent
upon the home supply, its importation being pro-
hibited. In spite of this absolute protection the
export of sugar remains small. This is due not
to the inferior quality of the cane, but to defective
methods employed in refining and distilling. The
cultivation of maize, which is one of the staple
foods of the poorer class, hardly produces half the
quantity required, and the rest has to be imported
from North America. It should be noted, how-
ever, that in the districts where this crop is culti-
vated seriously as many as four harvests are
gathered in a year.

This plateau district further produces, but not for
export, a considerable quantity of fruit. Finally
may be mentioned the export of 8000 tons annually
ofwoodforbuilding, cabinetwork, and dye-making.

Apart from theundeveloped riches of the country,
the sources of which, with regard to mineral wealth,
are known, the unexplored '' Sierras "of Venezuela
afford opportunities for initiative and energy from
which, without undue optimism, great results may
be anticipated, judging from what this Southern
Zone region surrounding the Sierras has yielded
to such as have exploited it. It was in the district
to the south-east of Ciudad-Bolivar, not far from

VENEZUELA 281

British Guiana, that the mines of the Callac were
discovered which, between 1875 and 1887, pro-
duced nearly ^4,000,000 and distributed to each
of the 322 holders of the original ^^40 shares a total
sum of ^8400. Since 1888, however, the black
quartz diabase has remained hopelessly out of sight,
and the shares to-day have fallen to a few shillings.
Upon the undeveloped riches of the country a
correspondent writes : —

''There is copper more or less everywhere,
chiefly on the side of Barquisimeto, Caracas and
Carupano ; iron, lead and antimony, and tin at
various points in the Caraib chain ; sulphur in
the neighbourhood of Cumana ; coal near Alta-
gracia de Orituco and Barcelona ; petroleum in
the Andes of Merida and around the great salt lakes
of Maracaibo; kaolin and pearls near the island
of Margarita ; phosphates and guano in the islands
of Roques, Aves and Orchila. On the other
hand, there is found growing wild on the coast,
between Caracas and Rio Chico, a plant of the
aloe type, the ' cocuiza,' the leaves of which, from
four feet to six feet long, after being pressed and
combed give a very supple fibre which is a textile
material at least as strong as hemp."

We have now to consider why it is that, con-
sidering all the natural advantages of this country,
its development has not hitherto proceeded at the
rate at which other South American countries, no
more favourably endowed by nature than is Vene-

282 THE TEN REPUBLICS

zuela, have progressed. Venezuela is, for in-
stance, about half as large again as Chile, yet
while British financial interests in Chile amounted
to over ^^"50,000,000 at the end of 1910, less than
i,8, 000,000 nominal of British capital was quoted
on the London Stock Exchange as invested in
Venezuela, and if a list could be made of the few
concerns operating with British capital in this
republic, but not officially quoted in London,
the amount would not be increased to any very
appreciable extent. During the past ten years
there has been hardly any addition made to the
amount of British capital interested in Venezuela,
and comparing the total with that concerned with
some of the other South American States, it must
be obvious that there is room for very consider-
able development. In the last year or two there
has been some progress, and there are good signs
at the moment that this will not only continue,
but be greatly augmented in the near future.
Such anticipations have, however, been previously
put forward and have not been justified, and it
may fairly be said that the financial and political
conditions of the country have generally been
responsible for the disappointment.

No progress of any great importance can be
looked for unless capital is obtained, and capital
cannot be attracted to any country unless it has a
stable government and will look after the interests
of investors, particularly when they are not of
local origin. It cannot be maintained that Vene-

VENEZUELA 283

zuela has behaved creditably towards foreign
investors in the past, though the last arrangement
has now been kept for some years and the debt
service has been punctually paid at the due dates,
with the result that her credit has advanced con-
siderably, the quotation of her bonds in London
being fifty per cent, higher than the price ruling as
comparatively recently as 1907. There still remain
to be settled, however, one or two questions
between the Venezuelan Government and foreign
investors. It is only fair to state that Venezuela
has had unusual difficulties to contend with.
Smallpox epidemics do not help a country to
prosper, while the despotic rule of ex-President
Castro will be remembered as having kept
the country back very considerably during the
past decade. Since Senor Castro left his country
for his country's good, things have certainly im-
proved. The present constitutional President,
General Juan Vicente Gomez, who came into
office in the early part of last year, has kept the
country free from internal troubles, and gives
promise of assisting to bring about a future state
of development which must be beneficial to all con-
cerned. In his inaugural address to Congress in
the early part of last year he showed that Venezuela
was on the best of terms, not only with her neigh-
bours, but with the world generally, and promised
reform of the customs and other measures which he
believed would redound to the credit of his country.
The first movement for Venezuelan indepen-

284 THE TEN REPUBLICS

dence was initiated in 1797, and many subsequent
attempts were made, all of which ended in failure,
until 1810, when the citizens of Caracas rose
against the Spanish authorities, deposed the
governor, and formed a constitutional congress,
which met in March, 181 1, and in the following
July formally declared the independence of the
United Provinces of Venezuela. Spanish authority
was, however, afterwards re-established, and con-
tinued until Simon Bolivar, the great South
American Liberator, took up arms against Spain
and eventually defeated the Royalists in 1819,
which saw the end of Spanish dominion in
northern South America.

In 1819 Venezuela became a part of Bolivar's
Greater Colombia, and upon the disruption of that
federation in 1830 Venezuela declared its absolute
independence. Then followed a long period of
presidents and revolutions, General Castro, the
immediate predecessor of the present holder of the
chief office of State, being still notorious in
Europe for the many disputes and difficulties which
he had with foreigners and foreign Governments.

The present Constitution of Venezuela was
authorized by the National Congress of August
5th, 1909, by which the country is officially termed
the United States of Venezuela. It is one of the
five Federal Unions of America, having adopted
the federal representative republican form of
government, the various States being entirely
autonomous in their internal government but

VENEZUELA 285

leaving certain limited powers the prerogative of
the Federal Government. The executive power is
vested in a president, a cabinet of ministers, who
act in conjunction with the president, and a
council of government, which co-operates with him
in certain cases provided for in the Constitution.

The United States of Venezuela consist of
twenty states, two territories, and a federal district.
Each has a legislative assembly whose members
are elected according to their representative State
in the Constitution, an executive power which
consists of governor and secretary-general, and a
council of government. The States are divided
into districts, and the latter into municipalities,
each district having a municipal council and each
municipality a communal board.

As intimated at the beginning of this article,
Venezuela is neither well nor favourably known to
British investors, for only a comparatively small
amount of money is invested in the country.
The bulk of this is in the Government bonds,
holders of which have until very recent years
had a very unfavourable experience.

Other British interests in Venezuela are chiefly
concerned with four railway companies operating
in the Republic, although there are, in addition, a
further eight lines, the total length of the twelve
being returned at 540 miles, with an invested
capital of something over ;^8, 000,000. The two
most important lines are the Puerto Cabello and
Valencia and the La Guaira and Caracas, both

286 THE TEN REPUBLICS

owned by British capital, and it is in connection
with the first-named that claims have been made
against the Venezuelan Government for many
years past, and are still unsettled. This is prac-
tically the only blot now remaining on the credit
of that country, and the sooner the authorities
realize the fact and deal with their obligation in
that connection the sooner will its credit be re-
stored. The La Guaira and Caracas Railway
Company owns a line 22| miles long, and has
generally managed to do fairly well. Another
English-owned line is the Bolivar Railway, while
there is also the Venezuelan Central Railway.

Reliable and up-to-date statistics as to the
financial position of the Government are not
available, the latest which have been issued only
referring to the financial year ending June, 1909,
for which period the revenue of the country
amounted to ;^2,oi6,5oo, the expenditure for the
same period being returned at ;^i,9o6,76o, thus
showing a surplus of revenue over expenditure of
about ;^i 10,000, and comparing with a surplus of
^^65,000 in the previous year. The internal and
external debt of the country at the end of 1909
was placed at ;^7, 7 10,990. The budget estimate
for 1910-11 gave both revenue and expenditure at
just under ;^2,ooo,ooo, the figures, however, being
of little importance, as it is the rule with these
countries to budget evenly, and the estimates are
only a very rough criterion of what is likely to be.

It should perhaps be mentioned that in con-

VENEZUELA 287

sequence of the Anglo-Venezuelan award of 1903
Venezuela has in the past eight years been called
upon to liquidate considerable indebtedness, and
the fact that this has been done must not be over-
looked in judging the progress or otherwise which
the country has made during the interim. Trade
statistics show exports during the year ended
June, 1910, to have amounted to ;^3, 600,816, and
the imports to ;6^2, 360,040, thus giving a balance
in favour of the country of nearly ^1,250,000. The
bulk of the trade is with the United States of
America, for the imports from that country
amounted to ;^768,6i3, and the exports to
;^i, 289,943, these figures in both cases being
larger than the trade with any other country ;
France came next, so far as exports from
Venezuela are concerned, with ;^i, 194,973; where-
as Great Britain and Colonies only figured for
;^403,340 of exports from Venezuela. On the
other hand, Venezuela imported from Great
Britain and Colonies ;^635,ioo as against only
;^i 56,688 from France. To Germany products
worth ;^346,095 were exported, and the imports
from that country reached £^\^,22^. The bulk
of the exports consisted of coffee, i^i, 546,005 ;
cocoa, ^^726,026 ; rubber, ^^583, 079 ; and hides and
skins, ^^337,247. The total trade of the country in
the year in question amounted to the equivalent
of about ;^5, 750,000, which for a population of
2,664,241 is equal to slightly more than £2 per
head, and compares with over jCy per head in the

288 THE TEN REPUBLICS

neighbouring Republic of Costa Rica, £2 per
head in Nicaragua, and slightly more than £\
per head in Guatemala.

Caracas is the seat of the Federal administration,
but owing to the extensive powers of self-govern-
ment enjoyed by each of the States there is a
marked tendency to decentralization, which is
assisted by the lack of intercommunication. The
capital city is pleasantly situated in a valley at a
height of 3025 feet above sea-level, 10 miles south
of the port of La Guaira. In appearance it is
typical of most of the towns founded by the
Spaniards, with straight streets intersecting at
right angles, some shady avenues and several
handsome squares. In its three and a half cen-
turies of existence earthquakes and civil war
have played a destructive part, and soon after its
founding it was sacked by an English pirate ; but
to-day it is still by far the most important social
and commercial centre which Venezuela can boast.
It is to be feared that this says but little for the
progress of the republic as a whole, but the back-
ward state of the country is fully realized by
those in power, and it is to be hoped that as the
condition of politics is now more settled, and past
abuses have to some extent been removed, an era
of reform and progress will set in. Capital is
urgently required for the development of the
country, and English capitalists have now in
Venezuela an excellent opportunity of obtaining
a good return for their money.

INDEX

Alamagfro, expeditions, 5, 6, 184

Alfaro, General Eloy, 220

Andes, political significance, 26-7

Antilles, privateer stations in, 10

Antofagasta, 201-2

Argentina: army and navy, 119-
20 ; betting in, 125-6 ; British
trade with: capital invested in,
61-3, criticism of methods,
^35~7 5 butter, 130; cattle rear-
ing, 129-30; chilled and frozen
meat, 128 ; cities, population,
116; constitution and adminis-
tration, 38-40, 116; early his-
tory, 1 14-15 ; education, 1 18-19 !
finance, currency and tariff,
122-4; foreign trade, 65-8, 112,
126-8, 132, 198 ; geographical
position, 112; Gran Chaco,
'34-5 ; Great Britain's invasion
of, 18; hides and wool, 129;
immigration to, 117; Italian
and Spanish colonists in, 117;
linseed production, 128; manu-
factures, 13 1-2 ; meat extract
companies, 130 ; mineral pro-
ducts, 132-3 ; modern rulers,
115; population, 66, 112; rail-
ways, 83-5, 120-1 ; shipping,
tonnage at different ports, 133 ;
timber, 133 ; Vice-royalty of,
founded, 7 ; war with Brazil, 19 ;
war with Paraguay, 19, 233-4;
wool industry, 130. See also
particular names of towns

Arosemena, Don Pablo, 109

Asuncion, 79, 235

Atahuallpa, 5, 219

Aztecs : arts of, 2 ; overthrow by
Cortes, 3

Bahia, 75

Bahia Blanca, 135; population, 116

Balboa, 93

Balmaceda, President, 18, 188

Barranquilla, 216

Barrett, John, 70, 81

Belem, 75

Belgium, Uruguayan trade, 269

Beresford, General William, 18

Bogota, 79, 215-16

Bolivar, Simon, 9, 205-6, 284

Bolivia : Acre territory dispute,
182 ; agricultural products, 146-

I 7 ; area, geographical position,
! etc., 27, 141-2 ; currency and
I finance, 153-4 ; early history,
I 138 ; education, 149-50 ; foreign
I trade, 65-8, 82, 152-3; labour
I question, 149 ; mineral wealth,
I 81, 142-5; population, 67, 149;
present satisfactory prospects,
I 140 ; railways, 84, 86, 140- 1,
j i47~8 ; rubber industry, 145-6 ;
I war with Chile, 17, 187; wealth
I of, 81-2. See also particular
! names of totons
Bovril Company, 130
Brazil : Acre territory dispute,
182 ; agricultural products, 165-
6, 170-6, see also Sao Paulo
State ; army and navy, 163-4 ;
British investments in, 64 ;
coffee exports, 172-3 ; constitu-
tion and administration, 38-40,
161-2 ; early history, 156-9 ;
education, 164-5 ! foreign trade,
65-8, 176-9 ; finance, revenue
and currency, 180-2 ; geo-
graphical and physiographical
conditions, 160-1; mineral

deposits, 177-8; population, 66,
162 ; Portuguese occupation,
6, 22-4; railways, 84-5, 169-70;
Republic proclaimed, 160 ; Re-
publican administration and
recent history, 23 ; rubber,
173-4 ; Uruguay's independence
recognized by, 19-20 ; war with
Argentina, 19, 115; war with
Paraguay, 233-4. See also par-
ticular names oftozmis
Bridge, Admiral Sir C, 105-6
British Honduras, 13
Bucaramanga, 216
Buenos Aires, 126 : Centennial
Exhibition, 126; Jockey Club,
125-6 ; population, 116; railway
construction, city improve-
ments, etc., progress in, 68-70,
124-5 ; shipping, tonnage, 133

Cabot, Sebastian, 232
Cabral, 156

Caceres, General, 248-9
Caracas, 79, 288
Cartagena, 216

289

290

THE TEN REPUBLICS

Castro, Cipriano, 16, 283, 284

Celman, 115

Central American Republics : Dis-
putes between, agreement as
to arbitration, 13 ; Spanish do-
mination, II

Charles V of Spain, 9

Chile : agricultural products, 203 ;
army and navy, 191-2 ; character-
istics of people, 190-1, 204 ;
constitution and administration,
53-4, 188-90; early history, 184;
foreign trade, 65-8, 195-8 ; geo-
graphical position, 28, 183; im-
migration, 191 ; mineral pro-
ducts, 202-3 ; nitrate industry,
199-201; population, 67, 183;
ports, 195 ; railways, 84, 85, 194-
5; recent history, 18; Republic
founded 186 ; revenue, finance
and currency, 198-9 ; tariff,

204 ; war with Peru and Bolivia,
171, 187. See also particular
names oftcmns

Cochrane, Lord, 186

Colombia : agricultural products,
208-10; army, 218; constitu-
tion and administration, 47-8,
217-18; early history, 14-15,

205 ; education, 216-17 ; foreign
trade, 65-8, 212; geographical
position and area, 206-7 '■> mineral
wealth, 81, 210-11 ; population,
67, 206-7 ; President's message
1909-10, 214; railways, 84,
214-15; Republic founded, 206 ;
rivers, 208 ; sources of wealth
in, 81 ; Spanish rule overthrown
in, 205-6 ; tariff concessions,
212, 213-14. See also particular
names of towns.

Columbus, Christopher, 1-3, 93
Cordoba, 116, 135
Corrientes, 117
Cortes, Fernando, 3
Cuenca, 226

da Fonseca, Marshal Hermes, 160

d'Andrade, General Gomes, 158

de la Gasca, Pedro, 7

deMoraes, President Prudente, 160

de Nicuesa, Diego, 93

de Ojeda, Alonso, 205

de Pierola, Nicolas, 249

de Quesada, Jimenez, 6, 205

de Vaca, 232
Diaz, Porfirio, 11
Drake, 8

Ecuador : agricultural products,
225 ; constitution and adminis-
tration, 48-51, 223-4 ; early his-
tory, 15, 219; education, 230;
foreign trade, 65-8, 226-8 ;
finance, revenue and currency,
228-9 • geographical position,
area, 221-3; independence pro-
claimed, 220 ; mineral resources,
224 ; population, 67, 226 ; rail-
ways, 84, 229-30. See also par-
ticular names of towns

Esmeraldas, 226

Ferdinand VII of Spain, 8, 185
Francia, Dr., 20

Galdpagos Islands, 222

Germany : Bolivian trade, 82,
152-3; Brazilian trade, 176-7;
Chilian trade, 196-7 ; Colombian
trade, 213 ; Equatorian trade,
227, 229 ; Peruvian trade, 257 ;
Uruguayan trade, 268

Gilbert, J. S,, 93, 94

Goethals, Colonel G. W., 104

Gomez, President, 83, 283

Gorgas, Colonel, 102-3

Great Britain : Argentine invaded
by, 18 ; Argentine trade, British
investments, 61-3, criticism of
methods, 135-7 ; Bolivian trade,
152-3 ; Brazilian investments,
64; Brazilian trade, 176-7; Chil-
ian trade, 196-7 ; Colombian
trade, 213; Equatorian trade,
228-9 ; Peruvian trade, 257 ;
South American Independence
recognized by, 9 ; and United
States, controversy re British
Guiana boundary, 16 ; Uru-
guayan investments, 267 ; Uru-
guayan trade, 269

Grey, Sir E., 192-3

Guiana, 16-17

Guayaquil, 225

Hawkins, 8
Honduras, 13
Hume, Major M., iii

INDEX

291

Immigration: to Argentina, 117;

Chilian, 191 ; Paraguay — need

for, 239-41
Incas, 2
Isabella of Portugal, 23

Jara, Colonel, 234
Jesuit missions, 20
JoaoVI, Dom, of Portugal, 22, 159

Lake Titicaca, 152

La Paz, 79, 1 50- 1

La Plata, 1 16

Latacunga, 226

Legui'a, Dr. Augusto B., 250

Lemco and Oxo Company, 130

Lesseps, Ferdinand de, 97

Lima, 79, 245-6, 251

Lopez, Carlos, 233

Lopez, Francisco, 20-1

Lopez, Marshal Solano, 233

Loreto, 255-6

Luque, 5

Mahan, Admiral, 105-6

ManAos, 75-6, 167

Mate, 175

Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, 1 1

Medellin, 216

Mendoza, 116, 128

Mexico: Aztec Empire, 3-4; early

history, 7, 11
Montevideo, 70-2, 273-4 ; siege of,

20
Moreno, Garcfa, 220
Morgan, Capt. Henry, 10, 93

New Granada, 7, 94, 205-6
Nicaragua, 13

O'Higgins, Bernardo, 186
" Old Panami," 93
Ordonez, Jose Batlle y, 271
Orellana, 6

Panama : area, geographical
position and population, 108 ;
Canal Zone administration, 108 ;
Canal Zone, cession to United
States, 14-15; early history, 14,
92-5 ; government and admini-
stration, 109-10; health condi-
tions, 103 ; independence of,
proclaimed, 93, 95-6 ; railway
enterprise, 94-5. See also par-
ticular names oftozans

Panama Canal : economic impor-
tance, 80, 88-91, 104-5, 107-8 ;
history and details of present
work, 97-104.
Panami Congress, 13.
Para, 75, 76, 167

Paraguay : agricultural and forest
products, 237-8 ; cattle rearing,
238-9 ; Chaco, 231 ; constitution
and administration, 43-5 ; cur-
rency and finance, 235-6, 241-2 ;
early history, 232 ; foreign
trade, 65-8, 236-7; geographical
position, 27, 231-2 ; immigra-
tion, need for, 239-41 ; Jesuit
missions in, 20 ; mineral de-
posits, 239 ; population, 67,
231-2 ; railways, 84, 239, 243-4 ;
Republic proclaimed, 232 ;
rivers, 231 ; smuggling in, 242 ;
war with Brazil, Argentina and
Uruguay, 19, 233-4, 263. See
also particular names of towns
Parana, 116
Pardo, Dr. Jos^, 249
Pedro V, Dom, Emperor of

Brazil, 22-3, 159
Pelotas, 76

Pena, Dr. Roque Saenz, 115
Pernambuco, 75

Peru : agricultural products,
256-7 ; and Bolivia, war with
Chile, 17; cattle and sheep
rearing, 257 ; commercial im-
provement, 82 ; constitution and
administration, 51-3, 251-2;
education, 260-1 ; expedition
from, 6 ; foreign trade, 65-8,
257-8 ; geography, area and
population, 250-1 ; guano beds,
253; labour question, 261;
nianufactures, 258 ; mineral
wealth, 252-3 ; population, 67,
251; railways, 84, 259-60; re-
cent history, 248-9; revenues
and finance, 258-9 ; rubber and
caucho, 254-5 ; Vice-royalty of,
founded, 7; warwith Chile, 187.
Seealso particular names of tcnions
Pinz6n, 156
Pizarro, Francisco, 5
Porto Alegre, 76

Portugal, Brazil's occupation of,
24, 157-9 ; and Spain, division
of South America between, 24

292

THE TEN REPUBLICS

Potosi: ancient glories, 138; silver

mining", in 143-4
Prescott's History of Mexico, 4
Privateers, 9-10

Quintana, Don Manuel, 115
Quito, 79, 219, 225-6

Railways, important factors in
South American development,
83. See also under particular
States

Ralegh, Sir Walter, 276

Riobamba, 226

Rio de Janeiro, 72-5, 167-8; har-
bour improvements, 76, 167

Rio Grande, 167

Recife, 76, 167

Roca, General, 20

Rosario, 116, 134

Rosas, 19, 115

Sanclemente, President, 95

San Mart/n, 9, 186

San Salvador, 13

Santa Fe, 116, 134

Santa Marta, 209

Santiago, 77, 190

Santos, 75, 76, 167, 169

Sao Paulo city, 75, 168-9

Sao Paulo State, 171-3

South America: economic import-
ance, 56-60 ; trade returns, 65-
8 ; constitutions, outline and
type, 29-38 ; tariffs, 31. See also
particular States

Spain : Paraguay separated from,
232 ; and Portugal, divisions of
South America between, 24 ;
South American possessions of,
history and overthrow of, i-
10; South American trade at
first mainly in hands of, 10

Sucre, 151

Sucre, General, 220

Tarapaca, 248

Townley, Lady S., 235, 243

Trade, returns of. See under par-
ticular countries and under
South America.

Tucuman, ii6

United States of America : Boliv-
ian trade, 152-3 ; Brazilian trade,

176 ; Chilian trade, 196-7 ; Co-
lombian trade, 212-13; I^qua-
torian trade, 227, 229 ; and
Great Britain, controversy re
British Guiana boundary, 26 ;
Panama Canal Zone acquired
by, 97-8 ; Paraguay trade, 239 ;
Peruvian trade, 257; South
American independence recog-
nized by, 9 ; Uruguayan trade,
269
Uruguay: British capital invested
in, 267 ; commercial importance
of, progress, 71 ; constitution
and administration, 265-7, 45''7 5
cereals, 269-70 ; early history,
262 ; education, 271-2 ; foreign
trade, 65-8, 72, 268-9 J geo-
graphical position, 28, 263-4 ; in-
dependence proclaimed, 19-20,
272 ; jerked beef trade, 269 ;
live stock trade, 269 ; meat
packing houses, 269 ; popula-
tion, 67, 274 ; railways, 84, 86,
266 ; revenue and finance, 265-6 ;
war with Paraguay, 233-4, 263.
See also particular names of
towns

Valdivia, 184

Valparaiso, 18, 77-8.

Venezuela : agricultural and forest
products, 279-80 ; British in-
terests in, 285-6 ; cattle lands,
279 ; constitution and admini-
stration, 43-3 ; 284-5 ; early
history, 16 ; finance and revenue,
286-7 » financial instability has
hindered development of, 282-3 '*
foreign trade, 65-87, 287-8 ;
geography, area, etc, 277-8 ; im-
proved commercial conditions,
82-3 ; independence, movement
for, 284 ; mineral wealth, 280-1 ;
population, 67 ; railways, 286 ;
river system, 278-9. See also
particular names of towns

Vera Cruz, 3

Villazon, Dr. Eliodoro, 154

West Indies, 9
Whitelock, General, 18
Williman, Dr., 270-1

Yucatan, 3.

^^^HIS BOOK IS miv ^^^^»««WM«— «—
-ui^™..^'^OF as CENTS

DF

DEC 18 193

J

JUN4. 1957 Q

^^ 1942
DEC 30 1943

REG

(VSr >

FEB 25 1944
OCT 15 1945

MAY 2 7^61

i.

RECD LD

22Wa/49PA |j/IN 1 7 '64 "iO mM

Ml I JAN 5 1966 7 9
MARS 0 1953 LU (

REC'D

Bl5'65'

:2i^ao

298952

UxNIVERSlTY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY

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